Die A Believer
by StefaniBardelli
Summary: When Short Stack find a girl, Belle, over Twitter with amazing ideas for their new music video, they hire her to direct the video. With Shaun's relationship on the rocks and Andy's slutty ways, will Belle bring the band together or break them apart?
1. Chapter 1

Belle's POV

I sat at my desk, surrounded by piles of books and empty pizza boxes. In front of me sat a computer with a blank document on the screen, mocking me with its absence of work. I had been sitting here for hours writing essays, finishing assignments. I turned and looked in the mirror that was nailed to the wall beside me. Wow, you could defiantly tell I had been working hard. My long brown hair was in need of a wash, my skin bare of any make up and I swear I looked fatter, having only eaten shitty junk food that didn't require me to be distracted from my study. Guess I would take care of that later, I thought to myself. Now I had come to History homework. I had always found History extremely hard, but I was never quite sure why. I mean I it was similar I English, but it was so factual, so boring.

"Fuck it" I muttered under my breath. I closed that lone window on my computer and did as I do automatically; I opened safari and click my four most visited pages. Twitter, , Facebook, Email. While they were loading I opened the playlist on my iTunes that was my pride and joy, simply named Untitled. It did not hold my favourite songs or my most played, but the ones that inspired me visually. See that's the thing about me, when I listen to a song I think about how the song is arranged, what happened to the writer to make them want to sing these lyrics allowed and ultimately how this would translate visually into a music video. I did this with quite a few songs, though I could only do it with a song that was strong enough to inspire this visual display in my mind. This playlist that sat on my screen contained the songs I could do this with and the ones I wanted to do this with. They were not all deep emotional songs with hidden meaning, they were not all songs that you could relate to and they were not all songs that were mainstream and top 40, about break ups or sex. To me, they were the perfect mixture of both, as was I. I love all this types of songs, all different genres and all different performers. I love bands like The Academy Is..., The All American Rejects, Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, Goodnight Nurse, My Chemical Romance and Short Stack for purely their music, the way they held nothing back and just rocked out. However, I also loved mainstream pop stars for not just their music, but everything from their live performances, music videos, perfectly sculpted dance routines. I guess it just fed my creative side more while bands fed my love for fucking awesome music. Everything about me showed a person conflicted.

I attended a boarding school you see, and as I was in Year Thirteen, my year group was housed away from the main hostel. Where we lived looked more like a flash new apartment building. Despite this, our rooms were still tiny. Only a small bed, desk and wardrobe could fit into this room. But I loved it. One point was that it had a door, while the hostel rooms only had curtains separating the rooms. Privacy was a Year 13 privilege I guess. But the one thing I loved was that the walls were made of cork boards covered in material, making me able to cover them with as many posters as I wished. This was where the confliction in my personality began. On one well two Lady Gaga posters and a monster ball set list were pinned next to a drawing of Gabe Saporta as a ghost, a pink wrist band with M&G written across it and the signatures of Cobra Starship. Further along the wall were three ticket stubs: Cobra Starship, Elemeno P and Kids Of 88. Not very many but that's was happens when you live in a country where no one knows where it is. But my favourite part of this wall was my two big Short Stack posters. They sat wedged between my time table and photos of my friends and me. Just as I looked up at these posters a song of theirs came on shuffle. Jack the Ripper started playing and I thought to myself why not share this with everyone else that lives here! I pulled out my earphones and plugged in the speakers. After I turned it up I walked towards the door and open it slightly so that anyone walking past would not be able to escape it.

"Why do you insist on playing that shit?" I turned to see one of my best friends Natasha standing at the door. She hated being called by her full name so we just called her Natty. Her dark brown hair was up in a top bun and she was wearing a T-shirt and fat pants.

"Just because you won't give their music a chance, does not mean they're shit!" she looked at me blankly, obviously in some way amused.

"I did. I listen to Stack is the New Black as you sat there with me and song by song, I told you how shit I thought they were."

"All that means is that you need to give the second album a chance! It's so much better and I know that you will like it! Look, Lily does." I pointed out the door as another one of my friend danced outside of my room.

"I'M BULLETPROOF OH HONEY I'M BULLETPROOF!" she screamed, drawing the attention of everyone in the house. She didn't mind. She let her let her light blonde hair flip around as she head banged while standing in the couch. She loved Short Stack more than I did and wasn't afraid to show it.

"Please Belle turn it off" Natty pleaded to me, "If not her me, then for her," she said pointing towards Sophie. I peered out the door. She was right; she could do damaged to her spine like that. I hit the spacebar on the keyboard and the music came to a halt.

"Hey why'd ya do that? I love and song," Lilly whined. "Yeah and I was enjoying the show!" someone yelled from the stairs, causing the crowd that had gathered to laugh.

"Okay people shows over! I need my homework time and I can't do that with Lilly... Well I don't know what she was doing but it was distracting!" I closed and door as I walked back into my room, once again sealing myself in my room. Homework I knew wasn't going to happen tonight so I opened a folder called 'Video Ideas'. Whenever I thought of an idea for a music video this is where I put it, along with picture of costumes or locations or whatever inspired the idea. I had quite a few but not one for Jack the Ripper. So I put my earphones back in, put the song on repeat and started typing.


	2. Chapter 2

Shaun's POV

I sat staring blankly at the screen in front in me. I had been sitting there for a while now, trying to come up with an idea for our next single. I had no idea what the song would be, if it would be off TiBC or newly recorded, what the album single artwork would be and what everything else would involve. I just had to freaking idea. Sam stood up from the bed where she had been reading and walked over to the desk.

"What is it baby?" she asked, wrapping her arms around my shoulders, "you look like you're stuck on something." Sam had been my girlfriend since high school and I always appreciated her opinion but when it came to music, she didn't really have a clue.

"Just trying to figure out the next single. I've been thinking about it for a while and I'm getting nowhere."

"Well," sitting herself down with a thoughtful look on her face, "you could have another talk about it to the guys, even if you got nowhere last time. It couldn't hurt. Or you could do what I've seen a few people doing on twitter and just ask your fans! I mean they're the ones you have to entertain right?"

"That's true. Oh well I'm giving up anyway. The reason I'm here is to spend time with you, not work." I closed my laptop and followed Sam to the bed.

"Yes and I'm so happy you are. Even since the label rented to the apartment in Sydney so you could be closer to everything, I never see you! And you have no idea how hard that is." She moved over and sat on my lap, one leg either side of me. She was so beautiful, I had no idea how I ended up with her when I did. She had a tiny frame; she was one of those naturally skinny girls. She had bright blue eyes and long bleached blonde hair that fell well below her shoulders. She was quite a bit shorter than me, with was good because I could stand next to her without feeling like a short ass. I looked down at her outfit and realized fight now all she was wearing was one of my shirts. "Well I know what you have in mind."

"Well can you blame me? I don't see you for weeks! And when I do I just want to get reacquainted," she replied with am cheeky smile. "Fine then, I give up," I laughed, leaning in to kiss her. I kissed her softy and slowly, but that didn't quite work for her. "Oh come on you can do better then that!" she whined. "I'll just have to do this this myself," she laughed, pushing me back onto the bed.

The next morning I knew that this single needed to sort this single out or it would nag at me the whole time we were home. I got in the car and made the shirt drive to Andy and Bradie's house. I figured with enough encouragement they would do it for me.

"Hello?" I called throughout the open door when I arrived.

"Come in!" I heard cheerfully in reply. I walked in to see Bradie sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Someone's happy! What happened, you get some last night? You know, finally?" From what we could tell, Bradie hadn't been with anyone since he broke up with his girlfriend six months ago. He wasn't still upset about it, but he hadn't moved on either.

"Hey so let's not talk about me not being a man slut. If you wanna talk about man sluts, he's still in bed." Bradie didn't like us teasing him but we did it anyway.

"Did I hear someone talking about me?" asked Andy, walking down the hall from his bedroom, wearing only boxers.

"Dude put some fucking clothes on. For gods sake I need to actually to talk about something serious!" That got him motivated. "Fine" he moaned.

Ten minutes later he returned clothed. "Okay so what's the big emergency?" Bradie asked.

"Well as you guys know we need to pick what song to release next and I've been thinking about it for days and I have no idea at all." "Why don't we just tweet asking what the fans want to hear?" Andy suggested "If it's good enough for Rihanna its good enough for us!" "That's what Sam suggested but it could just turn out to be more trouble than it's worth." "I think its worth I try," Bradie added "and if it gets too messy we could just say it was too close and we decided for ourselves." "Yeah true. Okay let's try it!" I said, pulling out my phone. Everyone else followed and we all typed into the boxes similar messages

"Okay guys we've tried to figure this out ourselves but now we need your help! What song do you think should be the next song released for This is Bat Country?" I hit send as the others did the same.

"Shit, a lot of people are up early" said Andy as the replies started to roll in. "It's midday you dick" rebutted Bradie, hitting him in the arm. Oh brotherly love. I scrolled through my replies; there was defiantly a favourite.

"Are you guys getting Jack the Ripper quite a bit?" "Yup" they replied in unison. I kept scrolling through the tweets when I spotted one that stood out from the others.

"BelleBoomKack: Well I don't know which one would be best but if you're thinking Jack the Ripper I have a few ideas in mind."


	3. Chapter 3

Belle's POV

I glanced at the time. Okay it's two o'clock and I'm in the exact place I was yesterday, I thought to myself. I guess that meant study break. I wondered out into the common room where a few people were watching TV.

"Anything on?"

"Na not really, but this is better than homework." Lilly replied.

"Lazy shit. Hey later I wanna do some dance practice okay?"

"Yeah sure bro." I wandered back into my room holding a bottle of water and sat down at my laptop. Before I continued my homework I decided to lurk twitter for a bit. I scrolled through a few tweets when one jumped out at me.

"ShaunDiviney: Okay guys we've tried to figure this out ourselves but now we need your help! What song do you think should be the next song released off of This is Bat Country?"

"Wow that's creepy" I muttered. I hit reply and sent back "BelleBoomKack: Well I don't know which one would be best but if you're thinking Jack the Ripper, I have a few ideas in mind." I wasn't expecting anything back so when I saw that Shaun Diviney had followed me moments after I tweeted that, I nearly had a heart attack.

"LILLY GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"

"What? What's wrong?" she questioned frantically.

"Shaun Diviney just followed me!"

"What? But you aren't even a hardcore fan! I thought he only followed people with Stack or Diviney in their username!"

"Well apparently he doesn't!"

"Dude, you have a new message." Lilly said, pointing to the right of the screen.

"Well that's a rare occurrence." I clicked the link and a message from him popped up on my screen.

"Oh my fuck!" Lilly screamed.

"Okay, out now!" I stood up and pushed her out the door.

"But I didn't even get to read it!"

"Yeah but if you scream about it every five seconds I want you out!" I scammed the door and bolted the lock.

"Now I can converse in peace." I sat back down and looked at the screen.

"ShaunDiviney: What kind of ideas did you have in mind?"

"BelleBoomKack:ollowed people with liith like Just for like the music video and such."

"ShaunDiviney: Awesome! Wanna explain it? We're pretty suck for ideas."

"BelleBoomKack: e pretty suck for ideasHonestly don't think I can in 140 characters. Give me a sec to write a twitlonger."

"ShaunDiviney: Don't worry about it. What's your e mail address?"

"BelleBoomKack: You're gonna e-mail a fan? But what if I'm a crazy fuck and tell your address to everyone?"

"ShaunDiviney: That's why I have a fan e-mail :)"

"BelleBoomKack: Ooonna e kay it's ."

"ShaunDiviney: Okay check your e-mail."

I could not believe this was happening. I wasn't a massive Stack fan but I did love them and I was finally going to be able to show one of my ideas to an artist that it was based on!

*Knock knock knock*

"Beeeeeeelle! Please tell me what's going on?" Oh god, Lilly again. If she was going to moan like this I was going to have to tell her what was going on.

"If you promise to keep calm!"

"...and Bradie will let us eat tonight." she quoted.

"See that's why I shouldn't show you! I don't want you to go all fan girl!"

"I am not a fan girl! But if this were happening to any Stack fan they'd be flipping the shit too!"

"Fine. Get in here."

"Yus!"

"We've just been DMing each other and he's about to e mail me so we would have more than 140 characters."

"He gave you his e-mail address?"

"He gave me a public fan one."

"Okay not as exciting."

"Yes and now that you're up to date you can leave, okay? I've got to study at the same time and I can't do that with you here. I promise to keep you in on it though."

"Deal!" And with that she skipped off out of my room and left me in peace.

"Right now where was I? Oh yes e-mail..."

I walked down the road towards the park, iPod in, avoiding eye contact with anyone that passed me. I couldn't believe what had happened to me this afternoon. To have a proper conversation with someone I admired so much was unreal. As I arrived at park I was mean to be meeting my friend Ellie at, I stopped to look around for anyone else. The park was completely empty of anyone, including Ellie. I sat down nervously; I hated being in public without a friend. I started to pull at my clothes, attempting to look busy. I was wearing a black singlet with a black see through blouse over top. Black studded high waisted shorts, fishnet tights and black Alexander McQueen Hobnail platform ankle boots. I topped off my outfit with a McQueen Raffia Wicca bag and gold necklace. I know I spend too much money on designer clothes that were sometimes over the top, but it's what made me feel special and unique.

"Boo!" Ellie screamed as she ran up behind me and covered my eyes.

I turned around to see another of my friends standing there in black flats, a floral dress that went surprisingly well with her bright red hair and a black cardigan over top. She was usually taller than me but she stood just short of me when I was in 14cm heels.

"You're lucky I don't punch you! You could have been some creep wanting to kidnap me!" I yelled, playfully shoving her.

"Well that's what you get for sitting in a park by yourself with your iPod in looking like a target! Now come on, I need me some Starbucks!" I pulled my earphones out and carefully placed them in my bag.

"I don't know how you can drink that stuff; it's not that good and it's bloody expensive!"

"Oh that's rich coming from you! I looked up those boots" she pointed down at my feet accusingly.

"And what happened? You have a new found appreciation for them?'

"No, I found out how much they cost! I don't know how you're able to afford all these designer clothes that you don't need."

"I can afford then because I have a father who thinks sending me big fat birthday and Christmas checks will make up for never being there while I grew up."

"Oh. Sorry bro."

"Na, don't worry about it. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be able to board and I would never have met you! So I guess it's a good thing. Anyway, I need to tell you what happened on twitter today" I said cheerfully, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from where it was going.

"I can only imagine. The shit you get yourself into sometimes"

"That's the thing, I don't think you can"


	4. Chapter 4

Belle's POV

"Why aren't you getting anything?" Ellie asked and she took her coffee from the person serving her.

"Well, for one I hate coffee and two it ridiculously expensive."

"Yeah but you could get something else."

"Maybe next time."

"It's just I swear I never see you eat!"

"Don't worry, I do. You should see my bedroom right now! Pizza boxes and Maccas bags are everywhere."

"So if you don't like coffee, why do we come here?"

"Because you like it and I like the sitting area upstairs." We walked up the stairs to a lounge that over looked the main street. You could see everything from here, including the path boarders took to get to town so you knew just who was where. We found a spot by the window and sat down.

"Okay so tell me, what happened?" Ellie demanded.

"So, I sent the front man of Short Stack a tweet saying I had ideas for creative direction to do with their song Jack the Ripper."

"Wait!" Ellie said, holding up her hand to stop me. "The front man is named Shaun! He writes the songs and plays guitar."

"Good girl, you've been listening. Anyway after that tweet, he followed me and we DMed for a bit. Then he asked for my e-mail address because I couldn't explain my ideas in 140 characters."

"He e-mailed you? But what if you'd been some crazy fuck who would give it out to everyone?" Ellie questioned, sipping from her cup.

"Well that's what I said, but apparently it was a public e-mail address. So we e-mailed for awhile and he said he really likes my ideas. He said he would talk to me again when he's shared the ideas with the others because he really wants to use them!"

"Dude, that's awesome!"

"I know!"

"Well, now you have to tell me what this idea is that got his attention"

"Okay. Well from what I've heard the song is about loving someone so much it hurts, right? So then I thought to myself; what makes love hurt? The first thing that came to mind was rejection. I combined that with influences from the actual murders of Jack the Ripper. I thought the main character could be so in love with this girl, who I've nicknamed Jacqui the Ripper, and he sees her in a bar in London where Short Stack are performing. He follows her out into the night and down an empty alley way. She is just ahead of him the whole time and after a while he starts to see bodies lying against the outsides of buildings. He doesn't even think it could be the girl he loves and keeps going. After a while he loses her and starts to look around for her. She then comes up behind him and wraps her arms around his shoulders and whispers in his ear 'So you think you're bulletproof? Let's see how you handle this'. The screen then cuts to black and I'm not too sure where to go from there. I guess the next scene could be his mates looking for and being finding him with his throat slit ear to ear."

"Wow." Ellie sat hack in her chair, taking it in. "That is so dark."

"Well Jack the Ripper was a murderer! And I think it works with the song."

"How did you even come up with that? I think if I went and told someone that idea, they would think I'd lost it."

"Then why isn't it odd when I suggest it?"

"I guess you're that kind of person."

"Fantastic. Well they liked my idea anyway." Ellie was like my creative wall; I could bounce ideas off of her all day and she'd be happy to listen. We sat there talking about possibilities for costumes, locations and different story lines for an hour before I remembered I was meant to be somewhere.

"Dude, I was meant to mean Lilly for dance practice!"

"Well," Ellie said, placing her third coffee down on the table. "You had better go then. We all know how much Lilly hates to be kept waiting!"


	5. Chapter 5

Shaun's POV

As I read the last received e-mail in my inbox, I noticed that Bradie and Andy were trying to look at me out of the corner of their eyes.

"Do you have something on my face?"

"No" they replied in unison, apparently confused.

"Then stop looking at me. I can see you, you know."

"We were just trying to figure out why you have that look on your face." Bradie informed me.

"What look?"

"That one that you just had! I've only ever seen you look like that when you and Sam first got together." Andy replied.

"I have a look?"

"Yes. It became like a warning sign. A sign that we shouldn't ask you who you were texting or we would have to listen to you talk about her for an hour." Andy moan, talking as if he were recalling a traumatic experience.

"Oh shut up. I was actually just e-mailing a fan that had some ideas for a possible Jack the Ripper music video!" I said, proud of my good work.

"You gave a fan your e-mail? You idiot!" Bradie nearly screamed.

"A fan e-mail! And the ideas are actually really good. Look here." I leant over and handed them my phone for them to see. They silently read through the e-mail that contained the ideas as I tried to read their faces for an opinion on what was written.

"Wow." Andy said leaning back into his chair. "That's pretty dark."

"That's exactly why I like it. My favourite music video of ours is Ladies & Gentlemen and that was dark, but I think we can go deeper."

"Okay. I guess if it was developed a bit more it would be awesome!" Bradie said handing back my phone. He was just as excited as I was about this, although Andy still seemed sceptical.

"So who is this girl that came up with these ideas?" Bradie inquired.

"Her twitter user name is BelleBoomKack and her bio says her full name is Isabelle Rose Tekoiti." I read from the screen. "And there is a link to her Facebook."

"Well let's hope her profile isn't locked!" Andy reached for his laptop and found her page. I looked over to see it was pretty open, with only her wall blocked.

"She's pretty hot!" Andy said, scrolling through the photos.

"Dude, don't even go there. She's a fan and probably has standards." Bradie cautioned.

"That's the thing. I don't think she is a hardcore fan. When I was talking to her she didn't freak out or anything." I said to myself. Now that I thought of it, that was one thing that seemed odd.

"She still could be. I mean you couldn't see her. She could have run through the house screaming at the top of her lungs as soon as you followed her." Bradie being the voice of reason again. "How old is she?"

"It says she's 18." Andy read. "Oh and she's a dancer." I could only imagine what was going though his head. "And it saying she goes to boarding school."

"She seems normal. We should Skype her to see if she is a fan girl. If not, these ideas are still good and from what I understood she has more, but she had to go meet her friend. I don't know about you, but I wanna hear them."

"Okay but we shouldn't use one of our accounts. I'll set up an account we can delete if she is crazy. Shaun, you DM her asking when she can get on and Andy, take a shower. You stink." Bradie ordered us. I agreed with him so I went along with it. I opened up my twitter again and sent off a message asking her about a time she was free. She only just had to leave to meet her friend so I guessed she would reply for a while.

"Hey dude, I need to go so I'll text you when she replies." I said, shoving my phone back in my pocket.

"Okay. When we Skype her we should all be there. If she is a fan girl, she will flip with all of us there." Bradie obviously had this all planned.

I got into my car and put the keys in the ignition. As I started the car, a thought floated through my mind; Belle was really pretty. Not that I would go there, I thought pushing the previous one out of my mind. I loved Sam and I just want to make sure that Andy didn't try something with her if this amounted to anything. He had a bit of a well deserved reputation and he'd been known to break hearts. Belle seemed nice and I was going to make sure that nothing of that sort would happen to her.


	6. Chapter 6

Belle's POV

I glanced at the time. Okay it's two o'clock and I'm in the exact place I was yesterday, I thought to myself. I guess that meant study break. I wondered out into the common room where a few people were watching TV.

"Anything on?"

"Na not really, but this is better than homework." Lilly replied.

"Lazy shit. Hey later I wanna do some dance practice okay?"

"Yeah sure bro." I wandered back into my room holding a bottle of water and sat down at my laptop. Before I continued my homework I decided to lurk twitter for a bit. I scrolled through a few tweets when one jumped out at me.

"ShaunDiviney: Okay guys we've tried to figure this out ourselves but now we need your help! What song do you think should be the next song released off of This is Bat Country?"

"Wow that's creepy" I muttered. I hit reply and sent back "BelleBoomKack: Well I don't know which one would be best but if you're thinking Jack the Ripper, I have a few ideas in mind." I wasn't expecting anything back so when I saw that Shaun Diviney had followed me moments after I tweeted that, I nearly had a heart attack.

"LILLY GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"

"What? What's wrong?" she questioned frantically.

"Shaun Diviney just followed me!"

"What? But you aren't even a hardcore fan! I thought he only followed people with Stack or Diviney in their username!"

"Well apparently he doesn't!"

"Dude, you have a new message." Lilly said, pointing to the right of the screen.

"Well that's a rare occurrence." I clicked the link and a message from him popped up on my screen.

"Oh my fuck!" Lilly screamed.

"Okay, out now!" I stood up and pushed her out the door.

"But I didn't even get to read it!"

"Yeah but if you scream about it every five seconds I want you out!" I scammed the door and bolted the lock.

"Now I can converse in peace." I sat back down and looked at the screen.

"ShaunDiviney: What kind of ideas did you have in mind?"

"BelleBoomKack:ollowed people with liith like Just for like the music video and such."

"ShaunDiviney: Awesome! Wanna explain it? We're pretty suck for ideas."

"BelleBoomKack: e pretty suck for ideasHonestly don't think I can in 140 characters. Give me a sec to write a twitlonger."

"ShaunDiviney: Don't worry about it. What's your e mail address?"

"BelleBoomKack: You're gonna e-mail a fan? But what if I'm a crazy fuck and tell your address to everyone?"

"ShaunDiviney: That's why I have a fan e-mail :)"

"BelleBoomKack: Ooonna e kay it's ."

"ShaunDiviney: Okay check your e-mail."

I could not believe this was happening. I wasn't a massive Stack fan but I did love them and I was finally going to be able to show one of my ideas to an artist that it was based on!

*Knock knock knock*

"Beeeeeeelle! Please tell me what's going on?" Oh god, Lilly again. If she was going to moan like this I was going to have to tell her what was going on.

"If you promise to keep calm!"

"...and Bradie will let us eat tonight." she quoted.

"See that's why I shouldn't show you! I don't want you to go all fan girl!"

"I am not a fan girl! But if this were happening to any Stack fan they'd be flipping the shit too!"

"Fine. Get in here."

"Yus!"

"We've just been DMing each other and he's about to e mail me so we would have more than 140 characters."

"He gave you his e-mail address?"

"He gave me a public fan one."

"Okay not as exciting."

"Yes and now that you're up to date you can leave, okay? I've got to study at the same time and I can't do that with you here. I promise to keep you in on it though."

"Deal!" And with that she skipped off out of my room and left me in peace.

"Right now where was I? Oh yes e-mail..."

I walked down the road towards the park, iPod in, avoiding eye contact with anyone that passed me. I couldn't believe what had happened to me this afternoon. To have a proper conversation with someone I admired so much was unreal. As I arrived at park I was mean to be meeting my friend Ellie at, I stopped to look around for anyone else. The park was completely empty of anyone, including Ellie. I sat down nervously; I hated being in public without a friend. I started to pull at my clothes, attempting to look busy. I was wearing a black singlet with a black see through blouse over top. Black studded high waisted shorts, fishnet tights and black Alexander McQueen Hobnail platform ankle boots. I topped off my outfit with a McQueen Raffia Wicca bag and gold necklace. I know I spend too much money on designer clothes that were sometimes over the top, but it's what made me feel special and unique.

"Boo!" Ellie screamed as she ran up behind me and covered my eyes.

I turned around to see another of my friends standing there in black flats, a floral dress that went surprisingly well with her bright red hair and a black cardigan over top. She was usually taller than me but she stood just short of me when I was in 14cm heels.

"You're lucky I don't punch you! You could have been some creep wanting to kidnap me!" I yelled, playfully shoving her.

"Well that's what you get for sitting in a park by yourself with your iPod in looking like a target! Now come on, I need me some Starbucks!" I pulled my earphones out and carefully placed them in my bag.

"I don't know how you can drink that stuff; it's not that good and it's bloody expensive!"

"Oh that's rich coming from you! I looked up those boots" she pointed down at my feet accusingly.

"And what happened? You have a new found appreciation for them?'

"No, I found out how much they cost! I don't know how you're able to afford all these designer clothes that you don't need."

"I can afford then because I have a father who thinks sending me big fat birthday and Christmas checks will make up for never being there while I grew up."

"Oh. Sorry bro."

"Na, don't worry about it. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be able to board and I would never have met you! So I guess it's a good thing. Anyway, I need to tell you what happened on twitter today" I said cheerfully, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from where it was going.

"I can only imagine. The shit you get yourself into sometimes"

"That's the thing, I don't think you can"


	7. Chapter 7

Andy's POV

"This is a horrible idea." I leant against the wall of the lounge, watching Bradie do something on his laptop. Shaun was on his way over.

"Why must you be so negative? What if this girl has more really good ideas? We could end up with a freaking awesome video."

I ignored him and turned around to walk down the hall towards my room. I entered in just in time to see Shaun pull up outside and get out of the car. He walked up the path and I heard a knock on the door. Bradie let him and they started talking about what was happening. I walked back out to where they were sitting.

"You look happy to see me." Shaun observed sarcastically.

"Yes. Because I am so happy to be Skyping a fan girl"

"Well you're the one that thought she was hot."

"Doesn't mean she's not crazy!" I retorted. "Some of the hottest ones are the craziest!"

"And you wouldn't know that if you didn't try fuck them all." Bradie snapped back.

"Look, don't try turning this round on me okay? Shaun, what time is she gonna be on?" I said.

"She said she would be on in 15 minutes." Shaun said, checking his phone for the time. "So she should be on now."

"Did you give her the username?" Bradie asked.

"Yup." Shaun leant over to look at the screen. "I am pretty sure that's her." Shaun said pointing to one of the people that had tried to add us."It's the same username and photo as her twitter."

Bradie nodded and hit the call button. He sat the laptop on the table in front of him and I moved over on the couch so I would be in the camera frame. It rang for a few seconds and then there was a click. A black frame came onto the screen as we waited for the other end to show up. The audio came in before the video and we heard loud music being played. The video came in and I recognised as Belle.

"Sorry just a sec." She said, playing with something off screen. The music went silent as she turned back to the camera. "Sorry, didn't realise you were calling."

We introduced ourselves and talked for a little bit about the video. I basically just sat there and observed the conversation. She seemed nice and normal, but that didn't mean she wasn't crazy.

"So." I cut in. "Basically the purpose of this was so see if you were a fan girl." I felt Shaun and Bradie's death glares on me at once, but Belle just laughed.

"Yeah I kinda guessed as much. That's why my door is barricaded." She leaned to the right to show that a chest of draws had been moved in front of the door, preventing it from being opened.

"Why'd you do that?" Bradie asked.

"Well I may not be a fan girl, but I have a friend called Lilly who isn't really a fan girl, but she can come off as one because she's very... Enthusiastic. So I thought it best she not be included in this. Don't get me wrong, she is really cool and one of my closest friends! She just doesn't always know when to stop."

"Okay, fair enough." Shaun replied. Just as he said this, there was a knock at Belle's door.

"Belle! I left something of mine in your room! Can I get it before you Skype Short Stack and lock me out?" That must have been Lilly.

"Just a moment." Belle stood up and walked over to her door, opening it as much as the chest of draws would allow. "What?" She hissed. She soon closed the door and returned to her seat.

"Hey Belle, what exactly are you wearing?" Shaun asked. He was right. When Belle had been sitting down, it looked as if she was wearing a black singlet, but when she had stood up it look like she was wearing a leotard of something.

"Oh! I just had dance practice before and I haven't changed yet. I'm wearing a cut out leopard, fishnet tights and black knee high boots." She explained, showing as she did so.

"Hey so your accent. You're a Kiwi right? When did you move to Australia?" I asked.

"What? Oh no I don't live in Australia. I used to when I was three but we moved back here after a while." She replied.

"Dude, should you know that from stalking her Facebook?" Bradie said to me.

"You stalked my Facebook?" Belle said.

"What no. I didn't do anything that that at all." I tried to cover up. I don't think she bought it.

"Moving along." Bradie said. "Are you at Uni? Cause it looks like you're in a hostel or something."

"Nope, wrong again I'm still in high school, but I go to boarding school so I do live in a hostel."

We kept talking for a while but Belle eventually said that she had to go and do homework or something so we said goodbye and logged off.

"Now was that so bad." Shaun said.

"Okay so she seems nice and she may be normal, but this could still turn out badly." I replied.

"Well you'll have to get over it, because I think she should direct the video." Shaun said proudly. Bradie nodded in agreement.

"Fine, but she's inexperienced, a fan and way too young, so if this turns out badly don't come crying to me."


	8. Chapter 8

Belle's POV

I had been on a high ever since that Skype conversation with Short Stack. It had only been two days but I was still so excited! Since then Shaun had added me as a friend on Facebook and offered me the job of directing the video. At first I was reluctant to do so as I couldn't afford to get there and I would probably have to take time off of school, but Shaun said the label would pay for my flights and I would stay with them in Sydney so I wouldn't need accommodation, I said I would think about. Looking at it from an optimistic point of view, this was an opportunity that I would be stupid to pass up. I run through what was going on while I walked through the school grounds to where my friends and I sat at lunch time. I walked out to the field by the front gate and sat down next to Ellie and Lilly. They must have seen a thoughtful look on my face. When I got comfortable, Ellie asked me what I was thinking about.

"Just about the Jack the Ripper again. I am still not sure what to do." I replied, scooping up the noodles that sat cooking in the Styrofoam cup in front of me. I had been lectured so much about eating these, but they were my guilty pleasure.

"Well I think you know what I would do." Lilly said, laying back on the sun warmed pavement.

"Go and then used them all as your sex slaves?" Ellie said with a deadly serious look on her face.

"No! I would take the job! Fuck you Ellie." Lilly rolled and lay down on her stomach, putting her earphones in and shutting off the world.

"So when do you have to go if you take it?" Ellie asked.

"Well I'd have to leave April the 11th and I don't know when I'd be back. So assuming that I would be gone for less than three weeks, I would need to take the last week of term off."

"Have you talked to your mum about it? Because doesn't the hostel need your mum's permission for that kind of thing?"

"Yeah they do. I talked to her and she said that I had her permission if I decided to go for it."

"Well, you've already been given all your assignments that are due in the last week, so if you rushed to finish them you wouldn't miss out on any credits."

"Well, you make a good argument. But I was meant to be staying with you these holidays; are you trying to get rid of me?" I said, playfully punching her in the shoulder.

"Of course not! Besides, would you rather hang round here with all the bullshit going down?" Right on cue, Sophie and Stacy turned a corner and starting walking towards where we were sitting. A whole bunch of people from our year group sat where we did so I wasn't unusual, but recently it had become awkward. Sophie and Stacy used to be in our friend group but, after a bit of a blow out, they had decided to make my life hell and, with this new found bitchiness, they walked around like they owned to school. In reality though, they were pretty dam close to the bottom of the heap. They had had never really talked to Lilly, but they had stayed close with Ellie, which also made things awkward. They sat down, but not before flashing me a look that said they were better than me.

"You know every time I see them, I really want to punch them." I said after tearing my eyes away from them. I had no idea what made them so high and mighty but it had gone to their heads.

"Well I'm done eating. Do you want to go somewhere else or something?" Ellie said as she aimed her rubbish towards to bin.

"Na, it's okay. We'll just kick it here, but I think that I have made up my mind about the video."


	9. Chapter 9

Ellie's POV

Lilly and I sat on Belle's bed while she sorted through her clothes. It was the night before she was meant to fly to Sydney and she has only just started packing now.

"You know, even I would be packed in this situation. You know that's saying something." Lilly said, still showing a hint of jealously in her voice.

"Well I was busy working on those." Belle looked up and pointed to the drawing scattered on her desk. I picked one up and saw a sketch of a faceless figure in a black, solid leotard with wide shoulder pad and black, towering shoes.

"What are these for?" I asked.

"Well, I was thinking about the video and I drew those for the girls that get killed halfway through and those are for them to wear. I know some good places in Sydney that I can get stuff from to make them."

"Oh, okay. What's it meant to look like?" Lilly said, grabbing the sketch off of me.

"Have you heard of Natalia Kills? I modelled the sketches after her and the music video for 'Nobody's Perfect' by Jessie J." Belle stood and collected up the sketches into a purple folder, tucking them away in the top of her suitcase.

"Okay I think that is everything." Belle said, stepping back to look at the two suitcases that sat against the wall. They looked so full; I wasn't sure how she was going to get them all the way to Sydney.

"It's getting late and I should be going." I said, standing up off the bed and stretching out. "I'll be over tomorrow after school to pick you up. What time does your flight leave?"

"I need to be there at 9 so you don't have to drive me. You need to go to school!"

"I thought you left at 5?" Lilly questioned.

"It got changed for some reason."

"I'm still driving you to the airport and I won't take no for an answer!" I insisted. This would be the last chance I would get to see Belle for three weeks and I was going to keep insisting until she said yes.

"I wanna come too!" Lilly said, lying down on Belle's bed.

"No!" Belle insisted. "You can't miss school. All I am doing is going away for a few weeks and that's hardly worth it."

"No. I will be here at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning to drive you to the airport and you have no say in the matter." I said, turning around to and walking out the door before she could attempt to reject my offer.

True to my word, the next morning I found myself driving up the hostel driveway. It was earlier then I would usually be up, but I wasn't going to pass up my last chance to see Belle. As I pulled up, I saw Lilly come running out dragging Belle's smaller suitcase behind her. She started laughing as Belle exited the hostel with a massive suitcase on tow. I popped the boot and helped them haul the luggage into the car. As we shut the boot, I noticed what Belle was wearing. She was always someone to dress up for no reason and today was no exception. She was wearing a white baggy singlet with 'Call Me Kills' spray painted on the front, black high-waisted shorts, fishnet tight and black knee high boots with studs all the way to the top. This would make quite the first impression Short Stack; I wish I could be there to see that.

We climbed into the car and drove most of the way to the airport in silence. When I looked around to see why, I saw the Lilly had fallen sleep and Belle was about to. I was so jealous that they were able to sleep as I hadn't slept last night at all. I had gone over this situation between Belle, Sophie and Stacy so many times in my mind and I was not feeling any better. I hated being in the middle of it, especially when I knew that Sophie and Stacy were only using me as a way to piss off Belle. I had considered just blowing them off, but I had seen what they'd done to Belle and I don't think I could deal with that too.

Belle and Lilly woke as we pulled into the airport. It wasn't very busy at this time of morning; mainly just men in business suits that flew to Wellington for work. Belle headed into the terminal first and walked straight up the desk to check in. This was probably something so routine to her as every term she had to fly home from school and back again when school started back up. When she had her boarding pass we sat down and waited for her flight to be called. I took her flight details to look over while she rested her head sleepily on my shoulder. I usually didn't like it when she did this, but right now she was allowed. As I looked down at the paper in front of me, I saw that she would have to fly to Auckland before she got on her plane to Sydney.

The loud speaker called Belle's flight a few minutes later, but she made no attempt to move from my shoulder.

"Come on Belle, time to get on the plane." Lilly said, trying to motivate her.

"Okay." Belle mumbled, standing up slowly. "But I am not happy about leaving you guys."

We said our goodbyes and after Belle promised to Skype us when she got to Sydney, she boarded her plane. As I watched her disappear into the cabin, I felt tears start to fight for freedom. I wasn't going to let them though. Besides, it was only a few weeks. I repeated this to myself as Lilly and I left the terminal.

"And as Belle flights off to the opportunity of a lifetime, we return to hell." Lilly stated dramatically.

As I slipped into the front seat of my car and put the key in the ignition, I thought to myself how words could not express how true that was.


	10. Chapter 10

Shaun's POV

I studied my surroundings as I sat down awkwardly on the seat nearest me. The airport was bustling with people coming and going, people leaving for good and people reuniting with their families. Usually when I was in an airport, I was the one leaving and I was being mobbed by fan girls. Belle's flight was set to land in about five minutes; five minutes to prepare myself.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from her as we had only talked over Facebook chat. I guess this was my chance to really get to know her better. Sam had caught me talking to her at one point. When she did, she got this look on her face that reminded me of jealousy and betrayal. I had tried to explain to her what was going on, but it didn't wipe that look off her face. I had been back in Sydney with Andy and Bradie for the last few days though, meaning I was able to talk to Belle without upsetting Sam.

I watched out the window for a while before I spotted a plane coming into land just outside of the gate. I stood up and walked over to a closer window in order to get a better view of who was exiting the plane. I couldn't really make out any faces, so I moved over to the gate and waited. First a few people in suits came through the door, followed by what looked like some Kiwi tourists. Then I saw a girl approaching the door. Her head was down, looking at the iPod she clutched tightly in her hands. As she entered the terminal, she tucked it away into the pocket of the duffel bag she was carrying, crossed her arms across her chest and looked around nervously. She hadn't seen me yet so I took the opportunity to study her. She appeared nervous; if it was because she was meeting me or because she was just a shy person wasn't apparent. She wasn't wearing what I would expect the typical teenager to wear, but she still seemed comfortable in it. I then noticed that despite the fact the she was wearing heels, she was shorter than me.

I walked up behind her and tapped my finger on her shoulder. "Hey, are you Belle?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

She turned around slowly, looking me in the eye for a moment before looking away again. "Yes that's me."

"Hey I'm Shaun. Shall we go get your bags?" I asked, pointing towards the baggage collection.

"Yeah, sure." She trailed behind me as we made our way over. After she had pointed out which two bags were hers, I picked them up and handed them to her. I swear they were the biggest two there.

"May I ask what exactly you have in those?" I inquired after I had loaded them into the boot of my car.

"Just clothes and some stuff for the video." She said as she slid into the front seat. When I got into the driver's seat, I noticed that she had folded her hands on the lap in front of her.

"So what stuff for the video?" I asked.

"How bout I tell you later? I'm quite tired after the flight, you know?"

"Okay sure, but I need to go to a meeting with the label soon so I'll drop you off at our apartment then go, okay? Give you a chance to get some rest."

"Okay sure. Do you guys live in Sydney?"

"Na, we just had an apartment here. We live in this town call Budgewoi you see, and it's just easier for when we need to be in town."

"Oh okay." She briefly looked up to survey her surroundings. "I haven't been round here in a while."

"Oh yeah? Family holiday?" I asked, trying to drive and look at her expression at the same time.

"No. I used to live in Perth with my family; we took a trip to Sydney when I was five I think." She seemed to be quite distant; maybe there was more to the story then she was letting on. I wouldn't dear pry though, I thought to myself.

We approached an apartment building right in the middle of the city and pulled into the underground car park. I turned off the ignition and popped the boot. "Well here we are."

We got into the elevator and I pushed the bottom for our floor, rather than stopping in the foyer first like I usually did. When we reached our room, I unlocked the door and pulled her things in through the door

"Okay, so there are two spare rooms on the right but the bigger of the two is the first door you come to. Our rooms and the bathroom are to left and the kitchen is just there. Now I'm sorry but I need to go to a meeting now." I said it a rush, collecting everything I needed for the meeting.

"Oh, um, where are you going?" She had crossed her arms defensively back across her chest.

"We have a meeting with the label about new music. We should all be back about seven-ish. That'll give you time to rest for the flight and stuff okay? Then maybe I could take you out for dinner to say welcome to Sydney?"

"Um, sure. That sounds cool."

I walked towards the door and walked out, but not before turning around to see Belle smiling.

_Okay first I'm sorry this is up late. Kinda cocked up my Bio internal so I had to redo it. So before I post the next chapter I'm asking for 5 notes, asks, follows or all of the above. This'll just give me time to write a kick-ass next chapter. _


	11. Chapter 11

Belle's POV

I watched Shaun close the door behind him as he rushed out to his meeting and silently hoped to myself that he didn't see the smile plastered across my face. I looked around to see that I was standing in an entry way and, just as Shaun had said, I had two hallways either side of me and one straight ahead.

I pulled the handles along the hardwood floor towards my room, nudging the door open with my foot. The room a walked into was utterly huge. It was fairly plain, only decorated with a queen sized bed up against the right wall and a couch, a chest of draws, a wardrobe and shelves on the left side of the room. The most significant thing about the room was that the entire wall in front of me was glass. From this window, I could see so much of Sydney; it was breathtaking.

I set my suitcases down next to the wardrobe and unpacked what needed to be hung up, leaving the rest for later. As soon as I was done, I glanced at my phone for the time. Great, I still have four and a half hours to kill before anyone came back.

I pulled myself up off the floor and wandered back down the hallway, turning the corner to where I assumed the kitchen and lunge were. The lounge was decorated the same as the bedroom; mostly white furniture, two couches in front of a flat screen TV, gaming systems set up around the floor just in front with games piled high next to them. What took up most of the room though, was a grand piano sitting just to the left of the couches. The kitchen sat at the back of the room. It small and only separated from the lounge by a breakfast bar. It was small, but surprising well equipped with appliances.

I sat down on one of the stools and picked up the brochures from the bench. A few where for places to eat, a few for local attractions and one that showed a picture of the building I was currently sitting in. I set them back down and decided to go for a wander around.

I roamed through the building and ended up in the foyer. It was quite fancy, furnished like an upscale hotel. At I was inspecting the high ceiling, someone clear their throat, announcing their presence. That person was what looked like the receptionist or something.

"May I help you with something, darling?" I red-headed woman looked up from her magazine and glanced at me. "Or are you just going to stare at the roof?"

"Just looking around." I explained as I approached the desk. "This place is remarkable, but tell me something. Is this place an apartment building or a hotel?"

"This 'place', as you call it my dear, is a combination of the two. It is designed for longer stay for upscale clientele. Not many people now about it; we try to keep it a secret because the guests are generally quite private." The receptionist explained.

"So who stays here then?"

"Mostly people with the connections that can get them here."

"Okay, I think I get it. So what about the people staying in room 1206?"

"Um, their label has the lease on their room I think."

"No, I mean what are they like? As guests?"

"They alright I guess. They've been staying here the longest of anyone here, but I don't think they always use the room. Sometimes they'll come back drunk and we'll get complains. Why, may I ask?"

"Well, I'm staying with them for a while and I wanna know what I'm in for. Um, what is down there?" I asked, pointing just past the elevators.

"Down there is the gym and the dance studios."

"Dance studios?"

"We have travelling dance companies stay sometimes."

"I have a few hours to kill; might go use that gym. Thank you… Sorry, I never asked your name."

"My name's Gwen."

"And mine's Belle. Thank you Gwen." I turned on my heels and headed for the elevators, making my way back up to the apartment. Once in my room, I got undressed and pulled on some short and a loose singlet. I dug my sneakers out of the bottom of the wardrobe where I'd put them earlier and headed back now to the gym, iPod in hand.

Downstairs, I looked around the well equipped gym. It was so big and there were only two other people in there! Before I settled down to work out, I opened a door that had 'Studio' written across it. Like the rest of the building, this room was flawless. Huge mirrors, hardwood floors, mammoth sound systems; this was a far cry from the bathroom I usually danced in.

Back upstairs after a lengthy workout, I hopped out of the shower and opened my wardrobe. I pulled out black ripped skinny jeans and a lace body suit that I think was intended to be lingerie. Well it's not see-through so it's good to wear, I thought to myself as I slipped it on. Once I had pulled my jeans on, I brushed all my hair to one side of my head and pinned it down. I finished the look off with a pair of black heels, picked up my purple folder and walked out to the lounge. I parked myself down at the piano, put my folder on top and began to play. To clock on the wall opposite me told me I still had an hour before anyone else returned so I was safe to play in private.

As the music flowed from the piano in front of me, the lyrics to the songs floated through my brain. I didn't really want anyone to burst through the door and hear me singing, but as I had an hour, I let those lyrics stream out my mouth.

'_Shut your mouth and close the door, I wanna, watch you while you take it off,'_

The song was about sex, but this I found this piano version so beautiful. I became so immersed in the notes coming from the piano, the lyrics exited me that I completely missed the click of the front door opening.


	12. Chapter 12

Shaun's POV

"Don't you think it's quite rude?" Bradie wondered.

"Don't I think what is quite rude?" I said, humouring him.

"That the night that Belle arrives, Andy decides to go out for a drink with some old mates. I mean, he could have done it another night; him not being here will just come off as rude." The elevator doors slid open and we stepped inside.

"True, but many it was just a coincidence. Aren't some of them only here for tonight of something?"

"I don't know, but it's still rude." The doors closed and I pressed the button for our floor.

"Well, I'm gonna take your out for dinner to say welcome and thank you; you coming?"

"Um, maybe not. Long day; quite tired, you know?" Bradie replied, dramatically yawning.

"Oh, now who's being rude?" As we came to the front door, I put the code in and opened the door slowly. Instantly, music drifted through the doorway.

"What's that?" Bradie questioned, a little too loudly.

"Sshh!" I walked silently down the hall, stopping so the piano was just in view. I felt Bradie come up behind me and peer over my shoulder, just as curiously as me.

'_Turning the lights out, burnin the candles, and the mirrors gonna fog tonight'_

"Shit, she's good!"

"Bradie!" I whispered, whacking him in the arm. But it was too late; Belle had already stopped and was now looking at us, a perplexed look on her face.

"Sorry, you were just really good and we didn't you to stop." I explained as Bradie hid behind me, embarrassed.

"Um, that's okay. Hi. I'm Belle" She leaned over, waving past me at Bradie.

"Yeah, I know. Uh, I mean hi, I'm Bradie."

"So!" I needed to interrupt this awkwardness. "Wanna go get some food?"

"Sure, I'll just grab a coat." Belle returned a minute later wearing a black knee length coat that she let hang open in front of her. "Aren't you coming?" She asked as she spotted Bradie getting comfortable on the couch.

"Na, I'm a bit tired; think I'll just stay here are relax." Bradie said, reaching for the x-box controller.

Belle and I walked out the door and into the elevator. As we walked through the foyer, Belle waved to receptionist whose name I could never quite remember.

"Are you making friends already?" I asked.

"Kind of. I was talking to her earlier today and she was telling me all about you." She teased.

"Only good things, I hope. I mean come on, look at us! We are just the type to me perfect tenants!"

"Don't worry, she wasn't too mean." She smiled to herself.

"So where are we going to eat?" I asked as we stepped out into the night. "You can choose."

"Well I don't really mind. Besides I wouldn't know any good places in Sydney, would I?"

"True. I know a place not too far away that's quite good. Off we go!" I declared as a grabbed her by the arm.

"Okay, I'm coming! Gosh!" She giggled. Seeing her laughing was greatly different to the shy girl I picked up today.

"So are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, still a bit tired though. Oh, I forgot to show you my ideas for the video!" She exclaimed.

"That's okay. Relax tonight, start working tomorrow. Besides, I forgot to give you something from management anyway."

"Oh great, now I'm going to look unprofessional! What was it?"

"It was a folder with some paper work in it and a meeting schedule in the front. They want to meet you tomorrow to talk location."

"Good. Cause I was thinking London, but to do that, we'd need to get sorted soon. London will be busy from the royal wedding and all."

"London! You're kidding!" I stopped in my tracks, staring at her.

"No. Jack The Ripper killed people in London so it seems appropriate." Belle said as we approached the restaurant. We walked inside and five minutes later we were seated.

"I love London so much. If we went back, I'd be so freaking stoked."

"We let's hope you go back then. I've never been, but it sounds beautiful." Belle picked up her menu and scanned through the food. "Oh thank god, they have steak. Usually I don't like meant very much, but the hostel doesn't feed us the best."

"Tell me something else about you."

"Uh, why?" Belle said, sipping from her water.

"Because I want to know more about you. Is that such a bad thing?"

"It's kinda creepy, but I'll humour you." She put her water down and leaned across the table, propping her chin up on her hands. "Well. My name is Isabelle Rose Tekoiti. I like long walks on the beach." She said, batting her eyelashes at me.

"Is that what works on guys in New Zealand?"

"Nope. All you need to do there is dress like a slut. Hey look." Belle pointed towards the other side of the restaurant. I turned round to see a girl trying to look at me out of the corner of her eye, stopping every so often to whisper to the person next to her.

"Well she looks like a fan. Think she's too shy to come talk and to you?" With that, Belle caught the girls and waved her over.

"What are you doing?" I muttered to her.

"Hello gorgeous! What's your name?" She asked the girl as she stood at our table. She had brown hair down to her shoulders and seemed quite shy.

"Um, my name's Taylah."

"Okay then hun tell me, are you a Short Stack fan?"

"Yes." Taylah said nodding furiously, glancing at me. "I kinda wanted to come up, but I didn't want to interrupt you guys."

"Don't worry about it." I said. We took a photo and chatted for a bit before Taylah returned to her table.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked Belle once Taylah was far enough away to not hear me.

"Think back to when you were younger. If someone had done that for you, wouldn't you be on top of the world? Wouldn't it just make you so happy?"

"That's true."

Belle leant back in her chair and took a long gulp from her glass. "Let's just hope no photos of this end up on the internet."


	13. Chapter 13

Belle's POV

After Shaun and I got back from dinner, I was absolutely exhausted. I had just enough energy to strip down, put on a singlet and fall into bed. I cocooned myself up in the blankets and was asleep in seconds. Sleep, however, was short lived. At what must have been about two am, I heard the door open and two people stumble through.

"Ssh! We have to be quite." Was all I heard in a loud whisper.

I crawled out of bed, pulled on a hoodie in order to cover myself and poked my head out the door. I looked just in time to see the silhouette of two people enter a room down the boys' side of the apartment. I heard the sound of a high-pitched giggle as the door closed. Well that must be Andy, I thought to myself as I crawled back into bed.

About five minutes later heavy breathing and moaning. Fantastic, I thought. I was going to put my iPod in to drown out the noises, but I then remembered that it was flat from the flight over. I wasn't going to be able to sleep till they were finished, so I put my hoodie back on, picked up my laptop and headed out to the balcony. I sat down on one of the chairs and took a moment to observe the view. I was surrounded my glittering buildings; it was so different from where I was from, but still so beautiful. I got myself comfortable, put my earphones in and logged onto Facebook. I opened chat and saw that no one was online. Of course they weren't; it was like four am over there.

As I gave up on Facebook, I heard the door slide open behind me. I turned to see Bradie walk out onto the balcony and take a seat next to me.

"Couldn't sleep?" He asked.

"Nope. And no surprises as to why." I told him.

"Yeah, after a while you get used to it, unless he brings home someone really loud." He explained just as a loud 'oh god!' filled the air.

"Isn't that lovely?" I said, screwing up my nose.

"And what a good first impression to made on you?"

"A very good impression."

"So what are you doing?"

"Hacking the buildings wifi, of course."

"Funny, cause the password is on the whiteboard in the kitchen."

"I didn't say it was hard."

"What are you actually doing?"

"Just downloading some new music."

"Like?"

"Computers Want Me Dead."

"Oh. Never heard of them."

"Didn't think so. Kiwi band, you see."

There were a few seconds or silence between us that was quickly interrupted by another cry of lust.

"So Andy sounds fun." I said.

"Buckets of fun. But really, he is a nice person and all. It's just when it comes to women, he's…"

"One of those guys?" I finished for him.

"Yeah, one of those guys. But…"

"Wait, ssh!" I said. I listened carefully for a few seconds. "I think they've stopped." Sure enough, there were no more sounds coming from that bedroom.

"Well I'm heading back to bed then. Goodnight Bradie."

"Night Belle." As I walked back inside, clutching my laptop, I turned and watched Bradie lay back in the chair and close his eyes, loosing himself in his thoughts.


	14. Chapter 14

Andy's POV

I woke up the next morning to see a note on the pillow. It was from that girl I picked up last night, the loud one whose name I couldn't remember. The note said if I wanted to hook up with her again, to call her. Like that would happen, I thought as I screwed up the note and threw it at my floor. Despite how much I had drunk last night, I felt pretty good. I sat up to start my day, but as I did, the hangover kicked in. I flopped back down on the bed, my head feeling like I had just slammed it against a brick wall. I reached for the Nurofen and glass of water I had by my bed. I downed two pills and then ventured out of my bed.

I pulled on my jeans, not bothering to put anything else; I mean, who else would be around? I glanced at the clock on the way out. Shit, it was only seven thirty! Something must have woken me up or I wouldn't be conscious right now. The apartment was completely quite. I walked into the kitchen and headed for the fridge.

"Good morning."

"Fuck!" I yelled.

"You okay there, bro?" I turned around and saw who must have been Belle leaning against the breakfast bar drinking a glass of water. I could only see her from the waist up, but it appeared that she was only wearing a black sports bra; sweet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You just surprised me." I moved over to the bench so I could peer over the breakfast bar, assessing what else she was wearing. Turns out she was wearing black baggy pants.

"You done perving?" She asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I've been downstairs working out. That's why I'm dressed like this."

"Ah, okay. So I'm gonna assume your Belle. I'm Andy."

"I know. You're the one that kept me up last night."

"No, that would have been the person I bought home."

"And she's gone now?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, I got told you were one of those."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh you know." Belle leant forward, giving me a view right down her sports bra. "Just someone who lives by one night stands, rather than relationships."

"Are you judging me for that?"

"Of course not. I mean you must be charming if you can get all those women into your bed, right?" She ran her finger along her bottom lip. "And I'm not really someone who's in a position to judge that kind of behaviour."

"You're like me?" I leaned in closer towards her.

"If you're asking if I sleep around, then no. If you're asking if I know how to manipulate people as I wish, including into my bed, then yes." She ran her finger down the side of my face, stopping at my chin; her tone coming to a whisper. "But I'll never admit it."

"I think I may go take a shower." She pulled away from me, completely changing her tone from seductive to bubbly. "See you in a bit."

She turned and walked down the hall towards the bathroom, her back to me just long enough for me to see the three roses tattooed into her skin that stretched from the back of her right hip to about halfway up her right side. This girl isn't at all what I thought she'd be, I thought to myself.


	15. Chapter 15

Belle's POV

"What the hell, Lilly!" I yelled at the screen sitting in front of me.

"Just making sure that you could hear me. Can't have a conversation if you can't hear me." She replied.

"That is true. So where's Ellie?" I asked.

"Right here." Lilly turned her laptop slightly so I could see Ellie wiping down the grill.

"What are you doing, Ellie." I moaned.

"Look, I don't care if you guys make fun of me, but Lilly put normal bread in this grill and if I put my gluten free bread in here, it will become contaminated and I will get stomach cancer. Do you want me to get stomach cancer?" Ellie lectured.

"Of course not!" I replied.

"So." Lilly said, turning back to me. "Where are they? Let me see them!"

"I haven't the foggiest as to what you are referring to, my dear."

"Don't play dumb. Where are those sexy fuckers that you are currently living with?" She demanded.

"Don't tell her!" I heard Ellie yell from the background.

"They're all off doing their own thing right now, so you won't be meeting them or freaking them out today, okay Lilly honey."

"Eventually, I will encounter them though. You know it and I know it." She insisted.

"Yes, but I will postpone that event as low as I can allow."

"So what else has been going on?" Ellie asked as she came into frame, holding a gluten free sandwich.

"Well not much actually. I mean, I only got here last night. I'm going to a meeting to discuss location today and the boys want to use my designs in the video but that's about it. I'll need to go shopping for material and stuff tomorrow and I am hoping to use some stuff I already have."

"Sounds sweet." Ellie said, concentrating on the cheese she was picking out of her sandwich. "People have been asking about you, you know."

"Oh great." I said. I hadn't told many people where I was going and I had told even fewer people why. To anyone that asked, the only explanation I offered was 'just going for a holiday'.

"What you tell them?"

"We only repeated what you said, basically." Ellie explained. "Don't want people all up in your business."

"Oh, and guess who came sat with us today!" Lilly exclaimed.

"Dear I ask?"

"Sophie and Stacey! They came over and asked where you were. We just told them you were having an 'extended break' and then they sit down with us and start talking like they are our best dam friends!" Lilly had always hated those two, even before this whole blow-out. The thing was Ellie had stayed friends with them. Not because she valued them as friends, but more for self preservation. They was probably why they had thought with me gone, everything would be all lovely between them. I explained this theory to them and they just nodded.

"We figured as much. Though we weren't gonna tell them to rack off because we didn't wanna rock the boat, you know?" Ellie said.

"True that!" Lilly agreed.

We talked a little while longer before Ellie and Lilly had to leave and go back to class. We said our goodbyes and hung up, but not before I promised to Skype them the next day.

I walked out of Short Stack management feeling pretty happy with myself. We had gone over everything the boys and I had come up with so far and they loved it, even agreeing to shoot the video in London. We were set to fly out on the 19th so I had exactly one week to get everything sorted. I was also holding the portfolios of ten girls from casting agencies for the parts of the victims. I opened my phone and saw I had a text from Shaun asking if I needed a ride back to theirs. I replied no as I had a few things I needed to take care of first.

The boys had absolutely no food in their cupboards, so I headed for the nearest supermarket and got to work. I had a list in my head of all the things I would need to make real homemade food rather than order every night. On the way out I grabbed a bottle of wine and headed for the checkout.

As the checkout lady scanned through the items, she glanced up at me every so often, probably trying to figure me out. What was an eighteen year old girl dressed in black skinny jeans, a baggy singlet, towering heels and a bowler hat doing buying enough food to feed a family of four for a week? I didn't really care though, this happened to me all the time. Whatever the hostel offered us some food for dinner that wasn't exactly eatable, I cooked. I had learnt to cook from my mum who had learnt from hers. I always loved it but never really loved the odd looks at the super market. This experience combined with knowing how my thirteen year old brother ate gave me a pretty fair idea of what I was up against.

I crashed through the door of the apartment yelling "Someone help me with these dam bags!"

As soon as they heard me, all three boys came to me from various places in the apartment to help. Soon the kitchen was filled with food that would hopefully last until we left for London.

"Shit this is a lot of food!" Andy said sorting through the bags, happening to open the one containing the tampons I'd bought.

"Why do these look crayons?" He asked, holding them up. Wow, I thought. This could go one of two ways. I could make this awkward, or I could pretend that this is absolutely normal and make it awkward for them.

"Well." I started. "Though the tampons themselves are not actually coloured, I believe that they bring a tad more joy to the menstruating process." At that they all shut up about my tampons.

As we continued to unpack the food, I told them about London and when we'd be going. They were pretty dam happy at that and I couldn't really shut them up after telling them. It didn't really take long for me to get tired so at about nine, I turned in. I knew I'd be needed my sleep because from here on out, I was in for a lot of hard work.


	16. Chapter 16

Belle's POV

"What the hell, Lilly!" I yelled at the screen sitting in front of me.

"Just making sure that you could hear me. Can't have a conversation if you can't hear me." She replied.

"That is true. So where's Ellie?" I asked.

"Right here." Lilly turned her laptop slightly so I could see Ellie wiping down the grill.

"What are you doing, Ellie." I moaned.

"Look, I don't care if you guys make fun of me, but Lilly put normal bread in this grill and if I put my gluten free bread in here, it will become contaminated and I will get stomach cancer. Do you want me to get stomach cancer?" Ellie lectured.

"Of course not!" I replied.

"So." Lilly said, turning back to me. "Where are they? Let me see them!"

"I haven't the foggiest as to what you are referring to, my dear."

"Don't play dumb. Where are those sexy fuckers that you are currently living with?" She demanded.

"Don't tell her!" I heard Ellie yell from the background.

"They're all off doing their own thing right now, so you won't be meeting them or freaking them out today, okay Lilly honey."

"Eventually, I will encounter them though. You know it and I know it." She insisted.

"Yes, but I will postpone that event as low as I can allow."

"So what else has been going on?" Ellie asked as she came into frame, holding a gluten free sandwich.

"Well not much actually. I mean, I only got here last night. I'm going to a meeting to discuss location today and the boys want to use my designs in the video but that's about it. I'll need to go shopping for material and stuff tomorrow and I am hoping to use some stuff I already have."

"Sounds sweet." Ellie said, concentrating on the cheese she was picking out of her sandwich. "People have been asking about you, you know."

"Oh great." I said. I hadn't told many people where I was going and I had told even fewer people why. To anyone that asked, the only explanation I offered was 'just going for a holiday'.

"What you tell them?"

"We only repeated what you said, basically." Ellie explained. "Don't want people all up in your business."

"Oh, and guess who came sat with us today!" Lilly exclaimed.

"Dear I ask?"

"Sophie and Stacey! They came over and asked where you were. We just told them you were having an 'extended break' and then they sit down with us and start talking like they are our best dam friends!" Lilly had always hated those two, even before this whole blow-out. The thing was Ellie had stayed friends with them. Not because she valued them as friends, but more for self preservation. They was probably why they had thought with me gone, everything would be all lovely between them. I explained this theory to them and they just nodded.

"We figured as much. Though we weren't gonna tell them to rack off because we didn't wanna rock the boat, you know?" Ellie said.

"True that!" Lilly agreed.

We talked a little while longer before Ellie and Lilly had to leave and go back to class. We said our goodbyes and hung up, but not before I promised to Skype them the next day.

I walked out of Short Stack management feeling pretty happy with myself. We had gone over everything the boys and I had come up with so far and they loved it, even agreeing to shoot the video in London. We were set to fly out on the 19th so I had exactly one week to get everything sorted. I was also holding the portfolios of ten girls from casting agencies for the parts of the victims. I opened my phone and saw I had a text from Shaun asking if I needed a ride back to theirs. I replied no as I had a few things I needed to take care of first.

The boys had absolutely no food in their cupboards, so I headed for the nearest supermarket and got to work. I had a list in my head of all the things I would need to make real homemade food rather than order every night. On the way out I grabbed a bottle of wine and headed for the checkout.

As the checkout lady scanned through the items, she glanced up at me every so often, probably trying to figure me out. What was an eighteen year old girl dressed in black skinny jeans, a baggy singlet, towering heels and a bowler hat doing buying enough food to feed a family of four for a week? I didn't really care though, this happened to me all the time. Whatever the hostel offered us some food for dinner that wasn't exactly eatable, I cooked. I had learnt to cook from my mum who had learnt from hers. I always loved it but never really loved the odd looks at the super market. This experience combined with knowing how my thirteen year old brother ate gave me a pretty fair idea of what I was up against.

I crashed through the door of the apartment yelling "Someone help me with these dam bags!"

As soon as they heard me, all three boys came to me from various places in the apartment to help. Soon the kitchen was filled with food that would hopefully last until we left for London.

"Shit this is a lot of food!" Andy said sorting through the bags, happening to open the one containing the tampons I'd bought.

"Why do these look crayons?" He asked, holding them up. Wow, I thought. This could go one of two ways. I could make this awkward, or I could pretend that this is absolutely normal and make it awkward for them.

"Well." I started. "Though the tampons themselves are not actually coloured, I believe that they bring a tad more joy to the menstruating process." At that they all shut up about my tampons.

As we continued to unpack the food, I told them about London and when we'd be going. They were pretty dam happy at that and I couldn't really shut them up after telling them. It didn't really take long for me to get tired so at about nine, I turned in. I knew I'd be needed my sleep because from here on out, I was in for a lot of hard work.


	17. Chapter 17

Bradie's POV

I woke feeling pretty good, able to get myself out of bed without too much effort. This contrasted greatly with the way Shaun and Andy usually functioned in the morning, appearing more dead than alive. I pulled on some clothes and headed out to the lounge. Sitting on the couch was Belle, flicking through some papers, iPod in.

"What are you listening to?" I asked, sitting down next to her.

"Oh, morning Bradie. I am listening to Jack the Ripper on repeat in order to inspire myself."

"Inspire yourself for what?"

Nothing really, all I'm doing is going through portfolios." She said picking up the paper in front of her. "Well all go through them when everyone's up, but I'm just having a peek."

"What are these for?"

"Girls for the victims in the videos."

"Oh, cool." I replied, sitting back on the couch next to her. "You're working pretty hard on this."

"Well you wouldn't want me slacking off, would you?"

"True." I picked up the sketches in front that I have been looking at yesterday from the coffee table. "Finished these last night?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep so I finished them at 3 am I think."

We chatted for a little while longer until Shaun and Andy dragged themselves out of bed. When Belle announced that she wanted to go over casting, we all gathered around the table. Andy made a point to sit right next to Belle, placing himself quite close to her despite there being enough room for him elsewhere. Maybe he thought he had a chance with her? She seemed smarter than that though, like she knew how to deal with guys like him.

We spread everything over the table and began to sort through the files. It didn't take long for us to get into an argument about who should be in the video.

"Look these people should be in the video." Andy demanded.

"You don't even care!" Shaun replied. "You just want to sleep with them!"

"I am not like that!" Andy turned to Belle. "I'm not really like that."

"Yes you are!" Shaun and I said in unison.

"Okay, let's all just calm down for a moment." Belle interrupted. "All most of these people are going to be doing in lying dead in an alley way. The important one is the female lead. Why don't we just start there?"

"Well none of us really like any of them for the lead." I said.

"Why don't you do it?" Shaun suggested.

"What, me?" Belle scoffed. "Why?"

"Actually that's a good idea." Andy said. "You know just how we all want it to be played so you'd be perfect."

Belle sat back and thought for a moment. "Do you guys really want me to do it?" She asked. We all nodded. "Okay then I will, but only if I can have some help directing."

"What Kind of help?" I asked.

"Well I have two friends who are amazing at this kind of thing. Their names are Ellie and Lilly and they would definitely lighten my work load so I could be in the video too."

"Are you black mailing us?" Andy asked with what he probably thought was a seductive smile

"Not at all."

"I'd say go for it." Shaun said as we all nodded.

"Yes!" Belle cheered, grabbing her phone and running out to the balcony. "Hey guys, how'd you feel about a free trip to London?" I heard her say before closing the sliding door.


	18. Chapter 18

Shaun's POV

The sun light hit my face as I slowly opened my eyes. I through one arm over my face to block the light, giving my eyes time to adjust before removing it and rolling over. It was nine thirty, good enough, I suppose. I got myself up and search for some clothes, but as I did, the thought of Belle entered my head, just as it had yesterday morning. I knew she wasn't the girl that I was meant to be thinking about when I woke up in the morning, but she was anyway.

I walked into the lounge to see Bradie sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Where is everybody?" I asked.

"Well Belle is still shut up in her room and do you even need to ask about Andy?" He replied.

"No, not really." I made my way down the hall to Belle's room. The last time I had seen her, she was carrying a mannequin and four bags worth of clothes and material into her room, and that was about three pm yesterday.

I knock softy on the door; no answer. I knocked again and the door opened slightly. I poked my head in to see Belle fitting a black strapless dress onto the mannequin.

"Oh, hi! Sorry I didn't hear you, I was concentrating." I looked around her and saw material and clothes scattered everywhere.

"Shit." I said.

"What?" She asked, turning around. "Oh yeah. When I'm working I tend to get messy."

"I can see that." I sat down next to her and looked up at the mannequin. "So what's that gonna turn into?"

"This." She passed me a sketch. I showed a black strapless dress just like the one before me; only this one had a silver lightning bolt from the top left to the bottom right. The model wearing the dress had her hair pulled back into a tight high ponytail with black lips and eye makeup.

"This is so cool."

"Thank you." She smiled, looking over my shoulder.

"Tell me, is it meant to remind me of 'Are You Afraid Of The Dark'? You know, _her little black dress is like a lightning bolt." _I sang.

"That's exactly right." She smiled, moving back to what she was doing. I watched her sort through the material. I could help but look her up and down, though I knew I shouldn't be. She was dressed in shorts and a singlet so I could see that she was quite curvy; she had some meat on her bones, unlike Sam. Oh god, there I go comparing her to Sam. They are nothing alike, I told myself, I was in love with one and the other was just some girl who is directing a video for us. But still my eyes wandered. Her hair was tied up in a bun so I could see all the piercings she had. I could also see the tattoo the sat on the back of her left shoulder.

"Cool ink." I said.

"Huh?" She asked, turning around. "Oh that. Thank you."

"What's it meant to be?" I asked.

"It's a Maori design that represents my tribe." She explained.

"You're Maori?" I asked.

"Yes. That would be why my last is Tekoiti."

"Oh yeah, true." I said, feeling like an idiot. "Is that your only one?"

"Tat? No, I have three. I also have one on the back of my neck and one on my lower back."

"Guess there's a lot I don't know about you." I said, looking into her eyes.

"And you're just gonna have to work hard to find more out."


	19. Chapter 19

Andy's POV

I sat on the couch, just thinking; thinking about how awesome it was to be going back to London in only four days; about Belle's friends that were arriving the day after next. The next few weeks were going to be hectic.

"Andy, can I talk to you?" Bradie said quietly to me.

"Sure." I replied. He led me out to the balcony and closed the door behind us.

"Okay, I'm going to get right to the point. What are you trying with Belle?" He demanded.

"I'm not trying anything." I lied.

Belle and I had been spending quite a bit of time together over the last few days. Whenever she was locked away in her room, I would wander in and we'd just chat. I wasn't going to lie, I had been hitting on her quite a bit, but she'd never really shown signs of reciprocating those feelings.

"Because it sure looks like you are." Bradie said.

"Look, even if I was, I do that with heaps of girls. Why do you care if I do it to Belle?"

"Because you are going to make it so awkward between everyone if you try something. And she seems smart, like she knows how to handle guys like you. I'm pretty sure you'll be the one hurt, not her."

"Then that's my risk to take. Why do you even care? Are you into her or something?"

"No, I just don't what you to try fuck our director and have her get pissed off." He was started to get mad now, but I still wasn't going to listen.

"Fine, I'll back off." I lied again. I wasn't going to back off just because he told me to. If something was going to happen, he had no say in it.

I exited the balcony and headed down the hall. As I went to open my door, I heard a laugh coming from Belle's room. I turned and headed towards the noise. I cracked the door open slightly and saw her tucked up in bed with her earphones in.

"What are you doing in bed at six o'clock?" I asked, barging in.

"Just a sec." She said to the computer screen. "Have you ever heard of knocking, Andy?"

"Nope." I sat down next to her and pulled her earphones out of the computer so I could talk to whoever she was speaking with.

"This is Elizabeth Inglewood." Belle announced in a fake British accent.

"Or Ellie. Hello there." Ellie said, waving nervously at me through the webcam. "So which one are you?"

"He's the one that kept me up that first night!" Belle butted in.

"Did you tell all your friends about that?" I asked, turning to her.

"Nope, just Ellie and Lilly."

"Speaking of Lilly." Ellie piped up. "I should go. Lilly's staying at mine till we come over and we're going to get dinner in five. I'll see you later bro." They said their goodbyes and then logged off.

"So we're gonna go out tonight." I announced, not intending to take no for an answer. "You've been locked up in here for three days and you need to do something."

"No way, I am way too tired. Besides, I have got so much work done and if I stop now, I won't start again." I tried to give her my best puppy dog look. "Oh you are so adorable. Fine I'll come!" When she asked if Shaun and Bradie were coming, I promised to ask and then left.

"Anyone wanna come out tonight?" I reluctantly asked the people sitting on the couch. I purposely left out the bit about Belle coming. I knew that she'd make the difference in their decision and to be honest, I wanted her all to myself tonight. They both decided they'd rather stay home than come out with what they thought was just me.

A few hours later, I knocked on Belle's door again.

"You ready?" I yelled through the door. She exited her room wearing a skin tight, plain black, black chunky heels and carrying a black purse. I just stared at her.

"Are you admiring my Alexander McQueen knuckle box clutch?" She asked, waving her purse in my face.

"If that means boobs, then yes, that is exactly what I am doing."

"Oh haha, you are so funny." She said, walking past me to grab her coat. "Don't be getting any ideas."

"None I don't already have." I whispered under my breath.

"Aren't you guys coming?" Belle called out to the lounge.

"Nope. Why are you? Andy didn't mention that." I heard in reply from Bradie.

"Guess it slipped my mind. Oh well let's go!" I urged, pushing her out the door. She yelled a quick "Bye guys!" before we left the apartment.

Once we got into it, it didn't take long for us to get pretty wasted. Belle was definitely enjoying herself, dancing with any guys she could find. I just sat at the bar, watching her dance to the pounding club music. As I saw her current dance partner move away from her, I took the opportunity to dance with her. I downed another shot and made my way onto the dance floor. I weaved my way through everybody else until I was right behind her.

"Hello Andy!" She smiled at me as soon as she realised where I was. She wrapped her arms around my neck and she danced up against me. I let my hands wander down her waist and settle on her ass. She looked up at me, smiling an evil grin. She grabbed me by the hand, letting her fingers intertwine with mine, and led me off to somewhere quieter. Once off the dance floor, she turned to face me and I pressed her against the nearest wall. I ran my lip from her ear down her shoulder, feeling her shiver. She grabbed me tightly around the shoulders and wrapped her legs around my waist, letting me support her weight. She ran her hands through my hair as I kissed her hard.

"No Andy, wait." She cautioned me as I tried to run my hands up her dress. "Don't do that here. Take me back to the apartment."


	20. Chapter 20

I knew I'd had far too much to drink last night before I'd even opened my eyes. I had left what I assumed were my curtains open, so the sunlight streamed through the windows, piercing my eyes in a blur. As my eyes adjusted, I started to observe my surroundings. I wasn't in my room as I had previously thought, but in one slightly different, slightly bigger. I ran my hand down my side so I could see what I was wearing, but I didn't get very far. I found I was wearing a bra, but before I could see what I was wearing on my bottom half, my finger encountered an arm. My fingers barely touched it and, as if on cue, it tightened around my waist, the owner pulling me closer into them. I reached down to the edge of the duvet and flicked it back, revealing the arm that had me trapped.

"Oh god." I whispered to myself, the words barely making it out of my mouth as my caught in my throat. I jumped out of the bed, collapsing on the floor next to it, staring at the bed in horror as if I had discovered a dead body lying next to me. But no, it wasn't a dead body, this was much worse.

I peered over the edge to of bed to see Andy lying on his side, reaching around the spot where I had just been, trying to find me. I dug through the clothes that covered the floor, finally finding my dress and pulled it on just in time for Andy to open his eyes. I turned my back to him and started searching for my shoes.

"You okay, baby?" He mumbled, still half asleep.

"I'm not your baby!" I spat at him. I tried to hide the fact that I was about to burst into tears. I felt so ashamed of myself, but I wasn't going to let him know that.

"Was I that bad last night?" Andy laughed. This only made me angrier, like I could turn around and punch him.

"Really though, are you okay?" He asked once he realised how mad I was. "Did I do something to upset you?" I heard him get up, wrap a sheet around himself and come sit down next to me, trying to catch my eye. He seemed genuinely concerned, but it was too late for that.

"Of course you did something to upset me! God, I can't believe I slept with you." I fought hard to hide the tears that were slipping into my words.

"I'm sorry! I guess you just seemed up for it, and you're so beautiful. I just wanted to take the chance to be with you." He sat back against the bed looking kind of hurt. Great, now I was the one feeling guilty.

"Look, Andy." I sat back against the bed next to him. "I don't feel that way about you okay?"

"That okay. I don't feel like that either. Beautiful is just a nicer word then fucking hot." I couldn't help but giggle at that. He really was a nice guy, and I knew I'd had to tell him the reason I was freaking out."

"Andy I'm a virgin." I said, not looking at him. "Well I was, before last night that is."

"Shit really?"

"The surprise in your voice is not helping your situation."

"Sorry. Don't worry though, you couldn't tell! Last night was pretty mind-blowing." He said, as if he were trying to reassure me.

"Well I'd give you a review too, if I could remember it that is."

"You don't remember a thing?"

"Nope. If I did, I would be way more awkward around you right now."

"Okay, well I'll tell you what. We forget this ever happened and from now on we are nothing but friends. I look out for you and you do that same for me, because I actually really like you and I think we could be really good mates. And I promise not to tell a soul. Deal?"

"I think that sounds good. Though I may go now, just as soon as I find my shoes, that is." I got up to start looking for them.

"They're in your room." I turn and looked at him, confused. "Just before we got into it last night, you sprinted out of my room and when you came back you weren't wearing any shoes. You said it was because you didn't want to ruin them. To be honest, I started to get a bit scared at that point." Andy explained.

"Okay that extra detail right there? That is not forgetting last night happened." I turned and walked out of his room quietly, tip-toeing to the bathroom so I wouldn't get caught. I slammed the door behind me and lent up against it. Even though I was okay with Andy, I needed the feeling of him off my skin.


	21. Chapter 21

Belle's POV

I entered my room, slamming the door behind me. Right now there was only one person in the world I wanted to talk to and that was Lilly. I picked up my phone, dialled Lilly, hit the speaker phone button and chucked it down. As I listened to the dial tone, I pulled a singlet and some shorts out of my suitcase and put them on. I collapsed onto my bed and picked my phone back up.

"Pick up, you silly bitch." I muttered under my breath. It was about nine thirty in New Zealand I guessed, and by now she was usually up.

"What?" I heard through the earpiece a few seconds later. "I was fucking asleep." Lilly seemed happy as ever.

"I really need to tell you something." I stated.

"Can't it wait an hour or so?"

"Well if you don't want to know what happened to me last night, then I may just go." I teased. I knew she wouldn't be able to resist that. Lilly was always up for some gossip.

"Fine, what?"

"Well I'm not a virgin anymore." I say.

"You slut!" I had to hold the phone away for a second so her screams didn't deafen me. I chuckle slightly at Lilly's reaction, despite the fact that this whole situation left me feeling rather sick.

"Before you jump to any conclusions, I was wasted and can't be held accountable for my actions."

"Wait, who did you fuck?" Lilly questions, ignoring my last statement.

"Andy." I mutter, embarrassed.

"Holy shit girl! Did you at least use protection?"

"I actually have no idea." I realise. "I guess I'll need to ask him about that."

"Well make sure you do. Trust me when I say that there is nothing worse than waking up next to some random, realising that you forgot about protection and being worried sick until your next period." I should have known Lilly had been in this kind of situation before. The best to way to describe her was the female version of Andy. But even though she could be a slut, I admired the way she didn't care what people thought and just did what made her happy.

"Well, I am on the pill." I offered.

"Still, just to be safe."

"Okay." I sighed. There was something else I wanted to talk to her about too, but I wasn't sure if I even wanted to discuss it.

"What else is wrong?" Lilly demanded.

"Well, it's just… Actually, don't worry about it."

"No, tell me."

"When I woke up, I kind of freaked out a bit. While I was trying to find my dress, he woke up and was all like 'hey baby what's wrong' and I basically told him to rack off. But the thing is, when I did he seemed kind of hurt, like he thought last night was something more." I buried my head in my hands, thinking over what I'd just said. "But I could just be imagining it."

"How has he been acting around you in the past few days?"

"He comes and sits with me while I'm working a lot. Sometimes he flirts a little, but I don't think I've given him any reason to think I felt anything like that for him."

"Perhaps it's best if you just pretend that you know nothing of his possible feelings for you and that you're just friends." Lilly suggested.

"Yeah, I think I'll do that. It'd be easier for everyone. Anyway, I'm going to go. I think I'll do some dance practice to get my mind off things."

"Okay, cool. And just so you know, I'm going to tell all this to Ellie." She told me cheekily. "Okay, see you tomorrow!" She yelled down the phone before I had time to protest. She could be such a little shit sometimes.

I put my phone down and walked over to my suitcase. Whenever I was having a shit day, I had a tendency to dress more extravagantly, and today was definitely one of those days. I search for a pair of fishnet tights that weren't ripped and put them on. Next came my Atsuko Kudo semi transparent black leopard print leotard and Pink Cobra boots. I finished off the look by putting on my old leather jacket that I had scored for three dollars at a hospice shop. I looked myself up and down in the mirror and walked out of my room, satisfied with how I looked.

Before heading downstairs to the gym, I headed into the kitchen for a glass of water and some pain killers. I opened the fridge to find the water bottle I had put in there the day before, but as I did, my hand collided with some leftover food and it went tumbling to the floor. As I bent down to retrieve it, I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I turned and saw a short blonde girl standing on the other side of the kitchen. The first thing I noticed was how pretty she was. She had long wavy blonde, huge green eyes and had a very sweet and innocent look about her. The second thing I noticed was how thin she was. I couldn't remember a time in my life where I'd been confident with my body, but I'd gotten over it a bit because of what I loved to wear. Looking at this girl made me instantly self conscious. With all this running through my head, I nearly missed the horrible, sour look on her face.

"So are you another one of Andy's whores?" She spat at me.

"Um, no. Are you?" I asked. I had always been a smart ass and there was no way she knew about Andy and I.

"What, no!" She looked as if I had just told her she was wearing ugly extensions or something, as if I had insulted her in the worst possible way. Just as she looked like she was about to slap me, Shaun rounded the corner into the kitchen.

"Hey Belle! I see you've met Sam." He grinned at us. Sam glare turned into a smile as she threaded her arm around Shaun's waist and pulled him into her. She looked at me almost victoriously, as if he were her possession. Shaun didn't really seem to notice though; I think he was trying to figure out what I was wearing.

"Oh so you're Sam!" I said in the fakest way I could. "I'm Belle, the person directing the Jack the Ripper video." I also like to wear leotards around the boyfriend you hardly see, I mentally added.

"Nice to meet you." She said, barely looking at me. "Shaun, can I talk to you outside?" Shaun looked kind of confused as she dragged him out to the balcony and slammed the glass door shut behind her. I couldn't hear what they were saying but it didn't look pretty. Sam looked like she was yelling something as she gestured towards me. Shaun pulled her into his arm and said something comforting that seemed to calm her down. I sipped my water as I tried to figure out what the fuck I'd done.

"What are you staring at?" Andy said, snapping me out of my daydream.

"I don't think Sam likes me."

"Yeah, probably not." He replied casually.

"Why do you say that?"

"She's quite over protective for Shaun. It isn't hard to guess why."

"I can understand that, but why does she assume that I want to go after him or something?"

"I don't know, ask her."

"No thanks, I want to live." I turned around to look at him for the first time. "Put a fucking shirt on, bro."

"I thought you liked me with my shirt off?" He teased.

"Please don't remind me!" I said, wanting to punch him. A look of hurt returned to his eyes for a split second, just as it had this morning before disappearing again.

"I need to ask you something serious." I said, setting my glass down. "Did we use protection last night?"

"Yes we did no need to worry about that." He said, finally taking something seriously.

"Are you sure? Because I don't want to think we did and then nine months from now, a baby comes out of me."

"I'm completely sure. Trust me." He looked me dead in the eye, as if to reassure me that everything was going to be fine.

I broke away from his intense stare and left the room without a word. The way he looked at me sometimes scared me a little. It was if there was something he really wanted to tell me but just couldn't.

I walked out into the hall and headed for the elevator, pushing the bottom for the ground level. I flicked through my iPod as the elevator arrived at the ground floor and slide through the doors. As I came to the gym door, I peeked through the door to see if it was occupied.

"Yes, empty." I muttered to myself. I preferred the gym to be empty when I danced. I meant I had the music up so loud that doing it while other people were there would just be inconsiderate.

I plugged my iPod into the speaker, pulled of my jacket and hit play. The studio came to life as the music filled every corner of the room.

_Chimpanzee's is hatin' but I take it all in stride, put her in a jungle with bananas on the side, told you they'd revive your career but somebody lied, I aint talking poultry when I say this chicken's fried_

As Nicki Minaj rapped her piece, I just stood and listened to the beat. When Ke$ha's chorus kicked in, I let the choreography overtake my body. I danced for what must have been about two solid hours before finally collapsing in a heap on the floor. I was so exhausted I probably could have taken a nap right there, but I was interrupted by the hollow sound of a single person clapping at my performance. I blushed and pulled myself up off the floor to see Shaun standing at the door looking pretty impressed.

"I didn't know you could dance like that." He said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Well that's because I don't like dancing in front of people." I replied, picking up my water bottle.

"Oh sorry, I didn't realise you'd mind. I was walking Sam out and I heard the music so I thought I'd come see where you disappear to every morning."

"Don't worry about it." I looked him up and down before deciding to relax slightly. I mean, it wasn't too big a deal if someone saw me dance. "So what's up with Sam?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, you know dam well what I mean. When we met it was like ice! Did I offend her in some way? Because if I did, I really didn't mean to."

Shaun just sighed and tilted his head to the side slightly. "She always been a bit overprotective, you see. I don't mind it too much sometime if it makes her feel better, but lately…" He trailed off, staring into space. "Lately it's gotten worse. Anyway, can we not talk about it? It's kind of a downer."

"Uh, sure. Come on, let's head upstairs." I pulled my iPod off the dock lead him out of the gym. He followed, but the absent look never left his face. He seemed like he was so lost in his head and he just couldn't find his way out.


	22. Chapter 22

Belle's POV

I sat with my chin resting against the bench top, watching my phone for any sign of a call or text message. I tapped my finger impatiently against the bench.

"A watched phone never rings." Shaun told me as he came into the kitchen.

"Shut up smart ass. I'm waiting for Lilly to call me."

"Why?"

"She said she'd call me before her and Ellie got on their flight to Auckland."

"Oh yeah, they get here today don't they? When was their flight meant to leave?"

I picked up my phone and checked the time. "Ten minutes ago. Guess she's not calling just yet." I put my phone back down and rested my head in my hands.

"You're really pumped to have them, aren't you?"

I nodded. "I haven't seen my family since January and I'm starting to get kind of homesick. Even though I live with Lilly and see Ellie every day, these guys are the closest to family I'm gonna see until July."

"Wow, that's a long time to go without seeing your family."

"I deal with it. I mean, I've been in boarding school all of high school so I've had to get used to it."

Shaun moved from behind the bench and took a seat on the stool next to me. "So what'd you do to get put in boarding school?"

"It was my choice, actually. The schools in my home town don't have the best reputation and I have family that boarded there."

"Okay wait," Shaun said, pulling out his phone. "Let me find a map of New Zealand." He flicked through his phone and showed me the picture. "Where do you live?"

"Here." I said, pointing to the North Island. "In New Plymouth."

"And where do you go to school?"

"In Nelson." I pointed to the top of the South Island.

"Okay, I think I get it." Shaun took his phone back, nodding. "And Ellie doesn't board, right?"

"Nope she's a day girl."

"So she lives in Nelson?"

"Yup. Has her whole life. And Lilly is a boarder too. She came to boarding second year from Palmerston North."

"Lilly's the one who is a huge fan right? Are we going to have to watch out for her?"

"No, I think you guys will be fine with her. She's gotten used to the idea that she's going to be around you guys and hopefully that's calmed her down." I got up from my seat and headed for the fridge, pulling out my water bottle. "I think you'll find she's just really comfortable around you. She's like that with everyone though; she hasn't really ever been the shy type. Ellie's the shy one."

"Well I can't wait to meet both of them." Shaun beamed from behind the counter. "We're in the studio today, so if you want you could borrow my car to go pick them up."

"That would be awesome! When will you be back?"

"Probably not until later tonight. Why?"

"Just wondering. When the girls get here, we have a lot of work to do and I think we'll get it done faster alone. Lilly found quite a few pieces for the costume in opshops and Ellie is about ninety percent finished doing story boards."

"Cool." Shaun said, standing up from the bar stool. "I'd better go get ready. Here are my keys." He reached into his back pocket and tossed his keys across the kitchen to me. "You better be a good driver!"

"Of course I am!" I called behind me as I headed towards my room to get changed.

Just after lunch, I sat in the terminal waiting for Lilly and Ellie's flight to arrive. Soon enough, the intercom announced their arrival. I stood by the gate watching everyone but Lilly and Ellie pile off the plane. Eventually, a mess of blonde hair came running through the gate and grabbed me around the shoulders.

"Belle!" She screamed in my ear, throwing her arms around my neck. "Have you been having fun slutting it up around Sydney?"

"Shut up." I replied, smacking her over the back of the head. "Where's Ellie?"

Lilly pointed in the general direction of the gate from which she came. I turned and saw Ellie practically stumbling off the plane, balancing herself against whatever was near to stop herself from falling.

"I fucking hate you so much." She said once I was in ear shot.

"It's not my fault you hate flying."

"But it is your fault that I had to come to Australia."

"Well, we'll be going to London soon anyway. Come on, let's go get your bags."

"Great, more flying." Ellie moaned as she bent down to pick up her carry on.

Five minutes later we were in Shaun's car, pulling out of the airport car park.

"So I heard about what happened with Andy." Ellie told me, leaning forward from the back seat. "Are you okay about it?"

"You're the first person to ask me that." I said, glaring at Lilly. "And I'm fine by the way."

"Is it awkward?" Ellie asked.

"No, not really. I mean, I feel kind of pathetic making a big deal about when he's probably been through this a hundred times before."

"Shit! Is this it?" Lilly yelled at me as we pulled up outside the apartment.

"Was she drinking on the plane?" I asked Ellie.

"Unfortunately no. This is sober Lilly." She told me as we watch Lilly rip open the boot, grab her bags and run for the elevator.

"Before you get too excited." I said to Lilly as we caught up with her. "You and I are sharing the big room and Ellie is in the smaller one, okay? Getting upstairs first will not get you a better room."

"Fine."

Once upstairs, Lilly had forgotten about rooms. As soon as we were in the door, she started running up and down the hallway screaming "Holy shit this place in huge!" I just sighed and dragged her stuff into our room before she tripped over them. When I returned, Lilly had calmed down, but not as I had hoped she would. She stood completely still in the middle of the hallway, staring at me.

"Guess what?"

"Okay I'll play. What?"

"I'm in Short Stack's apartment." She nearly whispered.

"Oh shit." I heard Ellie mutter from behind me.

"Look, we'll get some work done and then they'll be back from the studio and you can meet them, okay?" I told Lilly.

"Awesome." She said, snapping out of it. "I'll go get the pieces I bought."

Lilly and I spent a couple of hours in my room piecing together all the looks from the video, while Ellie lay on my bed finishing the story boards.

"Okay, Beth?" Lilly read off the checklist.

"Black strapless dress with the silver lightning bolt, black makeup and hair pulled back." I rattled off, gesturing to the boxes that things were packed away in as I went.

"Kione?"

"Black Kills look."

"Cody?"

"Black pumps, high waisted skinny jeans, Jean-Paul Gaultier bra without the shoulder pads, black blazer."

"And Lauren?"

"Black leather cut out dress."

"Well everything seems packed. I say we drink now."

"Yes! Thank god!" Ellie exclaimed from the bed. "I was getting so sick of you talking about fashion and shit."

"There's booze in the fridge." I laughed.

The night started out relaxed. Everybody was tired and we were just sitting in front of the TV with a glass of wine each, but as the night drew on, Lilly started to get drunker and drunker.

"You know what! This song should be my fucking theme song!" She started yelling when 'Not In Love' came on shuffle. "It like, sums up my life!"

'_Thought the cupid shot me with love, it was only an arrow'_ She started to sing once she had climbed onto the kitchen bench top.

'_Just cause we in deep doesn't mean, we can't enjoy the shallow' _I joined in.

"Ssssh! This song completely sums me up! I want to sing it!" She yelled drunkenly.

'_Never gonna make me want it make me want it more than fun if you wanna be the one be the one just for now_

_But we're not in love no matter what it's not enough we're not in love_

_It's not enough we're not in love it's not enough we're not in love_

_Staring at the stars got the lights dimmed to feel a connection. broke a couple hearts but I'm not trying to start a collection, honey, girls don't fall in love, never gonna make me want it make me want it more than fun if you wanna be the one be the one just for now'_

I had no doubt that she would keep going. Keep going, that is, if it weren't for the bang of somebody crashing through the front door, causing Lilly to fall from the spot on the bench


	23. Chapter 23

Lilly's POV

I picked myself up off the floor and straightened my clothes slightly as I heard who I assumed were the Stack boys returning home. I quickly looked down at myself to check I was in order, and then took a seat in between Belle and Ellie on the back of the couch. I cross my left leg over my right, folded my hands in my lap and smiled a sickly sweet smile at the boys who have just noticed our presence.

I knew that Belle had been a bit worried about my reaction to meeting Short Stack, but I knew that I wasn't going to freak out, despite my reputation as a fan girl. I wasn't really a fan girl; I just came across that way. The way I saw it was that you're only young once, and when you're young is the only time it's socially acceptable to be so obsessed with something or someone. And let's all be honest, it's freaking fun to be obsessed. Right now though, I turned all that off. I had always been good at manipulating people and I found that the best way to do that was to change who people perceived you to be. Be who people want you do be and they'll be who you want them to be.

I guess many people would understand why I felt the need to mess with people, but the truth is I don't want to mess with people; I want to mess with men. The way I had been brought up didn't leave me with the best impression of men and that had only progressed once I entered my teen years and was given the freedom of boarding school. I had been hurt in the past, but I don't think this was the reason I saw men as nothing but a toy. I had a pretty unique upbringing that gave me some views and opinions and I didn't really care if people didn't agree with me.

Belle introduced Ellie from her spot on and couch and Ellie gave a shy wave. When Belle moved on to me, I could tell that Andy had noticed me. He was looking me up and down and biting down on his lip slightly. I knew what this meant; I had used in a thousand times to lure people in. Belle introduced me and I gave a wave just as Ellie had, but when I returned my hand to my lap, I looked Andy up and down just as he had to me and bit down on my own lip, giving half a smile. He blushed, realising I had caught him checking me out, and looked back at Belle who was explaining that we had finished all the looks for the video. I took a seat on the couch as everyone else did and felt Andy sink into the couch next to me. He put his arm up along the back of the couch, nearly draping it around me, but I just ignored him and set my gaze on the centre of the room.

Eventually I got bored with the conversation about the video and decided I was too drunk to stay awake much longer. I excused myself and stood up to leave, making sure I brushed past Andy just slightly as I made my way to my room. I lay down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds before I was rudely interrupted by someone bursting through the door.

"And you called me a slut." Belle stated, slamming the door behind her.

"Don't be mad with me." I said, giving her my best puppy dog eyes. "We only just got here!"

"Well don't think I didn't see what you were doing! I know your subtle flirty techniques by now and I know that you were using them on Andy."

"I can flirt with him if I wish, thank you."

"I'm fine with the flirting, what I'm concerned about is what will follow. Are you going to turn him into another one of your boy toys?"

"Probably. I mean, he's pretty hot and he definitely needs to be taken down a peg."

"Great. Now I'm going to have to deal with you two doing whatever it is you'll do to him while I direct their music video." She sat down next to me and pushed me over. Get off my bed. You're sleeping on the couch."

"Why? What did I do?" I moaned.

"You're drunk and I don't want you throwing up on me."

I stood up and walked across the room, trying to keep in as straight a line as I can. I almost managed to get there, but my plan was foiled by a suitcase I couldn't see and I fell face first onto the couch. "See? I'm sober as can be." I mumbled.

Belle picked up a piled of pillows and blankets she had sitting in the corner and dumped them on top of me. "Goodnight my little drunken fairy."

"Goodnight mum." I mumbled. I hear Belle utter the word 'dickhead' before I slowly drift off to sleep.

I woke the next morning to see Belle still asleep hanging off the bed. I rolled off the couch, opened my suitcase, pulled out the black bag I had full of my shower stuff and trotted off to the bathroom. No one seemed to be awake so I made sure that when I found the bathroom, I was quiet. After I was finished, I pulled on the clothes I had brought with me and went in search of something that would help with the headache that pounded in my head.

"Oh look, I'm not the only one that's awake." I said to Ellie who sat at the bar sipping on Starbucks. "Trust you to have already found the closest Starbucks."

"What can I say, I like my coffee."

"So where is everyone?"

"Asleep, I assume. It's like eight am bro."

"Fuck me, really?"

"Um, yeah no thank you and yes it is. I guess we just haven't adjusted to the time difference yet."

"Uh! Fuck my life! I should be asleep!" I whined, collapsing against the bench.

"Okay you have fun with that." Ellie got down off the stool and headed for the balcony. "I'm going to leave you two alone."

"What, me and my misery?"

"Nope."

"Then who?"

"You'll see." She replied, nodding towards the door. She silently slipped out the door and closed it behind her without giving me a straight answer.

I was going to follow her and ask her what the fuck she was talking about, but instead I was distracted by someone coming into the room.

"Morning."

I turned around and saw Andy lent up against the opposite bench, sipping on a glass of water. Fuck I love Ellie and her psychicness.

"Good morning." I replied, jumping up to sit on the bench. "Why are you up so early?"

"Well you're up early too."

"But I have an excuse."

"What was it? Could stop thinking about me?" Andy said with a cheeky grin.

"More like you couldn't stop thinking about me. I saw the way you were checking me out. I'm not stupid." He seemed embarrassed by the fact that I had caught him, but he tried to cover it up with a laugh.

"Can't blame a guy for looking." He crossed the kitchen and lent against the bench, one hand either side of me so he was standing in between my legs. "Besides, there's some pretty good stuff to look at."

He was right up against me now, his face millimetres from mine. "Tell me, does this usually make girl melt? Does having Andy Clemmensen pressed up to them make girl want to take their clothes off for you?"

"Usually yes." He replied, letting his eyes burn into mine.

"Well not for me." I pushed him gently off me and slid off the bench. I picked up my coffee and walked towards the door to join Ellie. "If you want me, you're going to have to work harder than that." I called out behind me before closing the door in his face.


	24. Chapter 24

Ellie's POV

The door slammed behind me as I sipped quietly on my Starbucks. Lilly flopped down on the chair next to me like the drama queen she is.

"What now?" I asked, not turning from my coffee.

"Andy's such a slut, but he is playing right into my hands so it's not that bad."

"If only you applied your skills of manipulation to something useful."

"This is useful."

"Satisfying your unnatural sexual urges in not useful, Lilly.

"It is to me." Lilly said sitting up to face the same way I was. "So what are we doing today?"

"Well," I said. "We've already packed and don't have to leave for London until tomorrow. So basically whatever the fuck we want. But I did promise both Natty and Drew that we'd Skype them today."

"We should do that first, I think." Lilly slowly stood up and made her way to the door. "Imma go get Belle the fuck outta bed."

That'll be fun for Belle, I thought to myself. I picked up my empty cup and went to go find a rubbish bin. The lounge and kitchen were empty, which I was okay with. I hadn't really talked to any of the guys yet so if they were around right now, I'd just stand in the corner awkwardly anyway.

I picked up my laptop bag from beside the couch were I'd left it the night before and emptied the contents onto the table. My laptop started up as Lilly dragged a half asleep Belle out of their room. Lilly had changed into black skinny jeans that were completely pointless due to all the rips up the legs.

"Why am I here?" Belle moaned as she curled up in a ball on the couch.

"Some people believe we are here to serve God and others believe we had no purpose." I started. "But I've always thought that we are here just to live our lives in a way that makes us happy. You see-"

"Shut up, Ellie."

"You asked, dude."

"You are here because we are going to Skype our friends back home that are not lucky enough to be going to London!" Lilly interrupted.

"Fair enough."

"Oh look Drew is on." I said, pointing to the screen. Drew was our friend that was in New Zealand for the year on an exchange from Germany. He was so much fun and was caring; no one was looking forward to having to say goodbye to him at of the year.

"Hello my chicks! How are we all in the big old city of Sydney!" He screamed over the camera when he picked up our call. Drew was also one of the most out and proud people you will ever meet. He was so flamboyant but that never bothered any of us. Things only ever got awkward when we caught him checking out the same guys as us. While we chatted about what he would be up to while we were away, I heard people coming in and out of the kitchen, presumably making themselves breakfast. I guess it was the Stack boys but I didn't really bother to turn around and check. However, the conversation soon turned to them.

"So, girlys! I was Googling these boys that you are staying with and I think I found some old and new photos." I tried to turn around subtly to see if the guys were watching, but I couldn't find out before Drew continued. "The older ones they look like transvestites, but my god! They are hot now! Like seriously, do any of those boys swing my way?"

I heard someone choke on their water and I just buried my head in my hands. Almost everyone I knew was fine with Drew and his sexuality, but I think sometimes he forgot that not all males are gay.

"Dude! They're right behind us." Belle told him.

"Oh they are! Boys, come over and say hi!" He yelled out while trying to look past us. The boys reluctantly came over and sat down on the couch with us. "So, do any of you boys like, well, boys?" Drew asked them with a huge, mischievous smile.

"Okay, boy! You are going now! We shall talk again when we are in London and after you have found a boyfriend! Goodbye!" I told him.

"But-" I didn't let him finish before I hung up on him. "So that's Drew guys." I muttered.

"We guessed that." Shaun said.

"He's gay." Lilly said.

"We guessed that." Andy repeated.

"He's quite out there." Belle said.

"We guessed that." Bradie said again.

"So…" Lilly said, filling the awkward silence. "How about we call Natty? I shall message her."

The boys moved over to the couches either side of us while Lilly tapped away at the keyboard. I didn't really think that calling Natty was the best way to follow that conversation. She really disliked Short Stack and as one of our friends had already hit on them, this would be extremely different.

"Oh, she can't talk now!" Lilly said. "She says she's busy catching up on school work."

Well at least we could put of that meeting. I reached over to grab my laptop back from Lilly when an incoming call flashed up on the screen. "Shit." I muttered. Belle leaned over to take a peek.

"Fuck! Hit the decks!" She yelled as she and Lilly practically dived across the floor so they were lying at the base of the couch opposite me, out of the view of my webcam.

I hovered over the decline button for a second before caving like a badly built igloo in Arizona. "Hey Stacey." I said, channelling my one year of drama in order to fake some sort of enthusiasm.

"Hello! I have Sophie here too!" Stacy smiled, tilting the camera slightly so Sophie was in view too. I tried to continue to talk to them despite the choking and vomiting noises Lilly was making. It was easy for her, she'd always hated those two and thanks to a certain bitchy blow up, so did Belle. As for me though, I was still caught in the middle. I didn't really like to hang out with Sophie and Stacey any more, but they still thought we were friends and I wasn't about to go making any unneeded enemies, so I let them think we were.

I chatted a little with Stacey just to be polite. Every chance I got though, I would try to find a way to end the conversation and say I had to go, but Stacey would just come up something else she wanted to talk about. The whole time I had to put up with Lilly and Belle making various noises and comments loud enough that I was unsure if Stacey could hear them or not. They didn't really care though, they just keep giggling, causing the guys to start laughing along too.

I was just about to escape when Sophie popped down on the couch next to Stacey and decided she was going to but in.

"So where are you? You don't look like you're in your house or anything." Before answering, I looked up at Belle and Lilly who were frantically indicating not to mention that I was with Belle.

"I'm in Sydney actually. With family." I carefully lied.

"Oh cool! Lots of hot Australian guys for you to perv at!" Stacey said.

"Yeah, and you can escape having to hang out with that slag Lilly and bitch-face Belle for two weeks." Sophie sneered.

"Okay, you know they're my friends, so at that I am going. Enjoy your holidays." I said, hanging up before they had a chance to respond. I shut my laptop and looked up at the group. The boys were all just sitting there, mouths hanging open from the shock at the bitchyness they had witnessed. Lilly and Belle however, were unfazed by what they had just heard. My guess was they were used to it by now.

"Someone want to explain who they are and what you did to them?" Shaun asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh! I tell this story best!" Lilly said, waving her arm in the air as if she were trying to catch the attention of a teacher. "A couple of weeks ago, Belle may or may not have repeated a rumour about Stacey that was running wild around the school in order to get these mean girls off her back. For some reason, it got back to Stacey that Belle had started the rumour, which is complete bullshit."

"Wait." Andy interrupted. "What was the rumour?"

"That Stacey got poked out the back of her Youth Group." I said.

"It's the holiest place to get poked." Belle joked. "Haha, get it?"

"Yes we get it." Lilly said. "Anyway! Since then, they've been giving Belle so much grief. They will tear her down any chance they get and it is getting fucking ridiculous."

"But, it is all just superficial high school shit that I don't care about." Belle said.

"It was just awkward when we had to kick Stacey out of the band." Lilly uttered.

"Band?" Shaun asked, turning to Belle. "You never told me you were in a band."

"I didn't want you to ask us to perform for you or something like that. Besides, we aren't serious or anything. We just cover songs for fun and put them up on YouTube every so often."

"Every so often being every Saturday." I added.

"What's your band called?" Andy asked.

"17 Amps. We were originally 69 Amps but everybody but me was too mature for that." Lilly answered, still bitter over the name change.

"So who plays what?" Bradie asked, smiling at me.

"We all like to play a few different instruments and we also like to cover heaps of different types of songs, so we switch around depending on the song. I play any kind of keys and synths you want me to, along with bass and drums. Mostly drums"

"And you?" Andy asked Lilly.

"I play guitar, bass, drums, keys, backing vocals and on a few songs I do lead vocals. Oh, and I dance. But there are actually five members in the band." Lilly continued. "There is also Natty, who plays the same as me but she does more vocal than me. And then there's Tori, but she only dances."

"And you?" Shaun asked Belle, smiling like a mad man.

Belle just blushed and answered as if she were embarrassed by her musical talents. "I play guitar, bass, drums, keys, piano, keytar and I sing lead vocals on most songs. I also choreograph."

"You've been holding out on us." Shaun joked, causing Belle to blush harder.

"Okay, we're going out!" Lilly announced, slapping me on the knee in order to get me to stand up.

"What, why?"

"My parents just transferred some money into my account and I noticed there is not nearly enough booze in this house, so we are going shopping!"

"And also, we need to get some food you can eat, Ellie."

"Huh?" Bradie questioned.

"Oh, I'm allergic to wheat and eggs so there are lots of foods I can't eat. I'm also vegetarian."

"That's so cool. Why did you decide to become vegetarian?" He asked, seeming genuinely interested.

"Come on! You two can flirt later!" Lilly had already grabbed her coat and was now pulling me towards the door. Yeah like Bradie would be flirting with me, I thought to myself. I gave a little wave goodbye to him before I was pulled out the door. I guess I would just talk to Bradie later.


	25. Chapter 25

Lilly's POV

"I like that your parents must have figured out how much of a boozer you are by now, yet they still give you enough money to get you and everyone around you off their face." Belle lectured me.

"I think they have this whole 'let her figure everything out on her own so she learns' approach to raising me."

"And are they aware of how that is turning out?"

"Oh shut up."

"So what's this for?" Belle asked pointing to the bottle of vodka I was holding.

"Bonding of course!" I smiled.

"Oh no, not another one of your bonding nights." Ellie moaned as she came up behind us, holding a supermarket basket full of gluten and meat free food that she was able to eat.

"Do you really need that much food? We leave tomorrow." I asked.

"Yeah but we have four days between arriving back in Sydney and going back home. It'll be easier if I just get sorted now."

"So what do you have planned for tonight then?" Belle asked. We wandered slowly down the aisles of the supermarket, randomly throwing junk food into Ellie's basket while I carried my booze. I was getting a few stares but that was probably because people were wondering why I needed it on a Monday.

"I was thinking deprivation."

"Which one's that?" Ellie asked.

"You know that game on the boat that rocked? Where the cook's like 'I have never had sex with a man' and everyone who hadn't had to put their hands up? That one." Belle explained.

"But that's not a drinking game."

"It is when I play it." I said. "With my version, if you are unable to raise your hand, you take a drink."

"You are gonna get so drunk." Belle said.

"And Ellie isn't going to end up drinking anything." I laughed.

"I'm just far too straight edge for you guys." Ellie said proudly.

We finished off our shopping and climbed back into Shaun's car that he'd kindly let Belle borrow. We drove back to the apartment in silence. I was trying to think up things I could say tonight that would get Ellie to take a drink and judging by the look on Belle's face, she was doing the same. The problem was anything that Ellie had done, we couldn't really say because we had probably been with her when she'd done it. There were a few I could say like I've never been to Samoa that I could say but that was boring. I wanted drugs and sex related ones!

We walked in the door and looked around for the boys. We found them in the kitchen making themselves some lunch. Ellie picked up a pen and started to name her food and put it in the cupboard while I pulled out the bottle in my bag and placed it on the bench for everyone to see.

"Really?" Shaun asked. "It's midday on a Monday. Even Andy's not that bad."

"Oi." Andy said, whacking him in the arm.

"It's not for now! It's for tonight! I've decided that we should all get to know each other a little better." I explained.

"How does that come in to it?" Bradie asked, pointing at the vodka.

"We are gonna play drinking games! Yay!" Ellie said with mock enthusiasm.

"Sweet, something I'm good at." Andy said.

"Oh trust me, no one can out drink Lilly." Belle said, slapping me on the back. "And if you can, you need rehab."

"I reckon I could take the challenge." Andy said, leaning towards me.

"Like I said, then you need rehab." Belle muttered. Andy ignored her though, seemingly distracted by me. He didn't move away from me, but just stood there far too close to me. What did he think that his mere presence would make me want him right then and there?

"Hey Lilly, we need to remember to start planning house music at some point before we go back." Belle reminded me. House music was a school event that happened every second year. The school had five houses and during the event, each house had to perform two songs in the house choir category and a house lip-sync. The house lip-sync was pretty much just dancing and that's why Belle and I had been put in charge of organising it. House music wasn't until half-way through next term so there wasn't a rush, but knowing Belle she probably had quite a few ideas already.

"What's house music?" Shaun asked, looking far more interested than he should be. Belle happily explained what it was while I tried to figure out why the fuck he cared. Maybe he was interested in her? No, that wasn't it. I mean, I think Belle mentioned something about an overprotective girlfriend so it's not like he was available.

When finished explaining, Belle walked into the lounge and sat down on the couch, pulling her iPod and a note pad out of her bag. I sat down next to her and looked over her shoulder at the notes she already had. There were a few scribbles that had been crossed out, but what caught my eye was the block letters at the top of the page.

"Post-apocalyptic pop divas." I read.

"Yes! I came up with it about five minutes after I'd finished thinking up the Jack the Ripper video concept." Belle explained.

"Wow, you just go and go and go don't you?" Ellie said, sitting down next to Belle.

"Why are you here?" I asked. "You're in a different house."

"Yeah, but my house always loses. I can help with design." Ellie was an amazing artist. Whenever someone had a problem with anything artistic, she was always the one we turned to.

"Yes actually." Belle said, "You could help us greatly. Would you be able to help with backdrops?"

"Sure, but what about props?"

"I don't think there'll be any props this time round."

They continued to talk about backdrops for long enough for me to lose interest.

"Lilly!" Ellie said, waving in her hand in front of my face.

"Huh? Oh sorry, you guys just got really boring for a second."

"Rude." Belle said.

"So what music are we going to use?"

"Did you listen to that 'Till The World Ends' remix I sent you?" Belle asked me.

"Yeah."

"Okay good, cause I wanna base it around that. First, we'll start with 'Super Bass' by Nicki Minaj and then go into her verse at the beginning of the song. From that, Ke$ha's part kicks in, which leads well into the beginning of 'We R Who We R'. Then another chorus from Ke$ha and the second to last chorus of the original 'Till The World Ends'."

"Wow." I said, sitting back. "That sounds fucking insane. And the possibilities for stuff like costume are endless."

"That's what I was thinking."

"You girls never stop working, do you?" Shaun asked, coming to sit with us.

"Actually, you make a valid point." I said. "We should concentrate on this before moving on to another project." I told Belle.

"True. I'll keep working away on it though." She said, tucking her note pad back into her bag.

Andy and Bradie came and joined us too as Shaun flicked on the TV. We sat there watching for the rest of the day, not bothering to fill our day with anything but pointless reality shows. When it hit dinner time we ordered pizza and devoured that within minutes. After dinner, a thought struck me.

"Hey guys!" I yelled jumping off the couch. I run into the kitchen and picked up the bottle of vodka from where I'd left it. "Who wants to get to know each other?"


	26. Chapter 26

Ellie's POV

Lilly set out glasses for everyone on the coffee table as we all crowded around. This was not going to end well. These games always turned out with Lilly coma'd out on the floor, Belle trying to drunkenly explained something deep and philosophical before vomiting and me sitting in corner having had barely anything to drink. The thing is Lilly and Belle weren't exactly 'straight edge'. They liked to enjoy themselves in ways that didn't always agree with the law. Even though I wasn't into that kind of stuff, I didn't complain or try stop them. But when it came to these sorts of games, I always edged up sober as hell. I was proud of that. I had never driven drunk, I've never hooked up with some random guys and I've never had sex. I was probably most proud of that last one, because if I wasn't a virgin, that would mean I'd slept with someone in my home town and they'll all gay or douche bags. No offence to Lilly of course. At least when we played this game I got to embarrass Lilly and Belle.

"So who's first?" Lilly asked after she'd filled everybody's glasses.

"I'll go." I said. "I have never kissed a member of the same sex." I raised my hand above my head with smiling proudly at Lilly and Belle. Both their faces instantly dropped as they reluctantly reached for their glasses.

"What!" Shaun said, obviously wanting to know the story.

"Well, Belle and I were at this house party, right? The party got to this point at like four am where most people were either gone or passed out on the floor. So everyone that was still conscious decided to play spin the bottle." Lilly explained.

"At this time I'd like to point out that Lilly was a lot drunker than I was." Belle added.

"There about three girls including us and four guys, so I was sitting there thinking 'sweet, I'm gonna get to make out with four hot guys.'" Lilly continued. I started giggling at this point.

"When Lilly spun the bottle, in landed on me. Now, I was sitting up there thinking that everyone is so drunk, they aren't going to remember if Lilly kissed me or not. But despite my protests, Lilly basically attacked me." Belle said. I tried to contain my laughter, but that was not going well. After I'd calmed down and we were about to move on, I noticed Andy try to sneakily put his empty glass back down on the table.

"Oi, you!" Lilly said, picking up his empty glass. "Tell."

"Shit, I was hoping no one would notice." He muttered. "It wasn't too long ago actually. I can't remember who I was out with but I got really wasted and the next morning I couldn't remember anything that had happened. So I was going through my messages and I had one from someone called Matt that said 'I enjoyed last night babe. Hope to see you again soon'. And attached was a picture of his…" Andy paused a moment, going quite red. "Well I'm sure you can guess. Now I'm not actually sure what happened but I think we hooked up." Lilly, Belle and I collapsed with laughter; we were nearly in tears. I looked over at the guys and they were pissing themselves too.

"Okay guys it's not that funny. You can calm down now." Andy said.

"But you kissed some random dude!" Shaun told him between laughs.

"Moving on!" Lilly interrupted. "Who's next?"

"I'll go." Bradie said. "I have never… Broken the law."

"Shit." I muttered, picking up my glass. I looked around and realised the only person not picking up their glass was Bradie. "Wait, what has everyone done?"

"Underage drinking I think is our answer." Belle said, gesturing to us three.

"But I thought you guys were all eighteen?" Andy asked.

"I am, but Lilly and Ellie aren't. That's why I had to go with them to the supermarket."

"So by admitting that you have broken the law in this game, you two are breaking the law." Shaun said, pointing to Lilly and I.

"Yes. So does that mean you didn't drink until you didn't drink till you were eighteen?" Lilly asked Bradie.

"Yup."

"Wow. Even Ellie drinks and she's the most straight edge person we know."

"We need better friends." Belle added.

"Okay I'm next!" Lilly smiled. "Now this one is boring but I just want to get as much booze in to Ellie as possible. I have never been to Samoa!"

"I don't know why you're targeting me." I said, emptying my glass.

It didn't take very long for Lilly to get drunk, and within an hour or so, she and Andy sat in the corner of the lounge muttering things to each other, cracking up from whatever they've said and taking another drink. Shaun, Bradie, Belle and I remained sitting at the coffee table talking, though Belle appeared as if she was starting to lose it a bit as she slumped against the couch.

"Are you often the third wheel in this drinking circle?" Bradie asked.

"Not usually. Most of the time I'm right there with them but I thought I should try keep my dignity for a little longer."

"You're the drinker of the trio, aren't you Elizabeth?" Belle mumbled from her spot by the couch.

"Not I'm not."

"Elizabeth?" Bradie asked.

"Yeah that's my full name. I don't really like it too much though so I get people to call me Ellie."

"It's a nice name." Bradie said, smiling widely at me. I looked at him briefly, but blushed and looked away.

"You know what sucks about long names?" Belle nearly yelled, suddenly becoming more animated. "How people shorten them!"

Here comes the rant.

"I mean, I get Izzy heaps, but I freaking hate that name because it's so common! And some people think I'm Isabella not Isabelle so I get Bella and then people make twilight jokes. And do you know what I do then Shaun?" Belle asked.

"No I don't! Why do you do?" Shaun replied at the same volume as Belle. I think he'd had a fair bit to drink also.

"I fucking punch them!"

"Really!"

"Yes!" Belle said. "You know what? I really like the word scheiße. It's a great word."

"Okay we're going!" Bradie announced, pulling me to my feet and leading me down the hall to my room.

"Why?"

"I don't really wanna hang round them when they're like that. Besides, I want to see these story boards I've been hearing about." He pushed open my door and sat down on my bed, waiting patiently for me to show him.

"Fine, but I don't think they're very good." I dug my folder out of my bag and sat down in the bed next to him. "Here you go."

"Wow." He said after a few minutes. "These are really good. You are quite the talented artist."

"Thank you." I blushed. He looked at me a moment like he wanted to say something, like it was right there on the tip of his tongue, but instead he turned away.

"I think I'll hit the hay. We do have an early start tomorrow, despite how those four are behaving." He stood up and walked towards the door, stopping for a moment to look back at me. "Night Ellie."

"Night Bradie." He closed the door quietly behind him ad I lay back on my bed muttering to myself.

"What the fuck was that?"


	27. Chapter 27

Shaun's POV

I woke up to the sound of someone running up and down the hall outside my room. "Fuck." I mumbled as I pulled some clothes on and opened my door to see Belle running around frantically. "What are you doing? It's like seven in the morning."

"No, it's eight thirty and we have to be at the airport in half an hour to check in." Belle called out from the other end of the hall.

"Shit." I muttered as I when back in to my room and dragged my suitcase out into the hall.

"Did you borrow my McQueen '07's?" I heard Belle ask Lilly.

"No, why would I borrow your shoes? For one, you would kill me and for two, you have tiny feet anyway."

"Crap! Had anyone seen my McQueen '07's?"

"Belle, no one knows what that means." I told her. "Why does it matter what shoes you wear anyway? We're just going on a plane."

"Yes we are going on a plane, but we're going on a plane to London! There is no better excuse to wear Alexander McQueen!" Belle said before bolting off to her room.

"Did someone give her too much coffee?" Bradie asked from the kitchen.

"No, when it comes to fashion, she's always like that." Ellie replied.

"Found them!" Belle yelled. She ran back into the lounge and sat down on the edge of the couch, holding a pair of black heels with a metallic gold heel and platform. She held them closely to her face, inspecting them. "I am pretty sure someone borrowed these. They don't look the same."

"And how do they look different?" Lilly asked.

"I don't know. They just do."

"Belle, they're just shoes." Lilly said. The moment she said that, Ellie's face dropped.

"Just shoes? These are heels from the 2007 fall 'In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1962' collection! How dare you!" Belle replied, hugging the shoes to her chest. "Be careful or they'll hear you! You'll make them cry!"

"Where's Andy?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"In the shower trying to wake up." Lilly said. "The lazy shit."

I got up from the couch and walked to the kitchen to make myself some coffee. I didn't go straight to sleep after last night's drinking; instead I'd stayed up a little while on YouTube. I looked up random videos for a while before remembering what Belle had said about her band. I found their YouTube channel in minutes and watched every single video on it. It had taken me a while but it was worth it. They had only ever put up covers but just from that I could tell they were amazing performers. Just as they had said, they like to switch around roles in the band depending on the songs, but they did seem to have favourites. Ellie seemed to like to stay behind the drums, but she was still fucking killer. She switched to synths for electronic and pop songs, but I think she still preferred her drums. Lilly spread herself evenly between guitar, bass and synths and also dancing. She was quite a good dancer, probably the best out of Belle and who I presumed was Tori. Not offense to them of course; it just seemed as if she had been doing it longer.

Then there was Belle. After watching all those videos, I had concluded that she had to be one of the most fucking amazing performers I had ever seen. Despite this just being something fun for her, she still knew exactly what she was doing. There was this one song that I recognised as the one she was playing on the piano the night she got here. After listening to it in full, I found it to be quite a dark aggressive song, and Belle portrayed that so well. But she easily went from this to performing sweet acoustic love songs or whatever it was she needed to. I also concluded that she seemed to like to sing best, perhaps because of the freedom it gave her to jump around, which she did a lot of. I don't know what it was, but watching her perform just blew my mind.

Half an hour we were loading our things into taxi's to take as to the airport. It didn't take us too long to clear security and such so before I knew it, everyone had their tickets and we were waiting in the departure lounge. We were all seated on the right side of the plane in twos with Andy and me at the front, Lilly and Belle behind us and Bradie and Ellie at the back. Dam, I thought. I was kind of hoping to sit next to Belle. I got what I wished for though, when Andy kicked up a fuss about having to sit next to me, so Belle switched with him.

Once on the plan, I loaded my carry-on into the over head compartment and sat down next to Belle who was in the window seat, and yawned.

"Why are you so tired?" She asked.

"Couldn't sleep last night so I stayed up on YouTube for a couple of hours."

"What could you possibly be looking up on YouTube for that long?"

"I watched every single video on your band's page." I grinned at her.

"Oh wow. That is some dedication right there."

"I know right. I think you're an amazing performer by the way. Just thought I should tell you that."

"Really?" Belle blushed. "That means a lot coming from you."

"Why?"

"Well you're such an amazing performer yourself and your lyrics are beautiful. I kind of look up to you a bit."

"Yeah you do cause you're so short."

"Oh haha you're so funny."

"What you got there?" I asked, gesturing to the folder in her hand.

"Oh, just a plan for all the filming and such."

"Let's see." I said, taking it from her.

"See." Belle pointed to the paper as she looked over my shoulder. "If you take in to account the time difference, we arrive tonight, London time. We then have tomorrow to do whatever really, but I would say we shouldn't do that much because we need to be on set at nine pm. We film through till four am, and that's the same for all three nights."

"Didn't know it was a night shoot."

"Well I didn't want you complaining." Belle teased. "We'll be filming the 'Bar Scene' first, which is mostly performance shots apart from the bit where you see me and come after me."

"Cool. So I was thinking about how you put so much effort into the clothing for all the victims, but not once have I seen or heard about what you are wearing. I thought that I'd being hearing all about it by now!"

"Oh don't worry, that is well sorted. But you will just had to wait and see." She giggled, playfully tapping me on the nose. "But I will give you a clue. There is pink involved because of the whole 'she wore a pink sweater' lyric. But I still look badass."

"Can you ever not look-" I was cut off by the air hostess making her announcements and such before I could finish. When she had shut up, I turned back to Belle. "I was thinking about the video yesterday, and I had some ideas I wanted to run past you."

"Shoot."

"What if at the beginning of the video when you come in, instead of us just setting our stuff up, I sit there playing Jack the Ripper acoustically."

"And then the other two could come in after a bit too! I like it." Belle beamed.

"My second idea was about the ending. You know how you had the idea of Andy and Bradie finding me dead on the side of the road? What if we used that bit as kind of a trailer/teaser for the video, but edit it so you don't see what they find when they come round the corner?"

"That's brilliant. You've missed your true calling." Belle joked.

"So have you ever been to England before?" I asked.

"Nope. The closest I've been is Paris."

"Paris? Really?"

"Yeah, Lilly and I stayed there for six weeks over this past Christmas as part of a school exchange."

"I heard my name." Lilly said, leaning forward from her seat to talk to us.

"I was telling Shaun about Paris."

"Ah oui. Beautiful city. And what they say the city of love, they mean it. I swear just being in Paris makes a guy hotter." Lilly said.

"We should take Bradie on a trip there. By some miracle he might actually get laid." Andy commented, not bothering to look up from the magazine he was reading.

"Asshole." I heard Bradie mutter from two rows back.

I turned my attention back to Belle and we kept talking. A couple of hours and two shitty airplane meals later, I checked my phone and saw that it would be eight at night if we were still in the same timezone.

"Don't think you're meant to have that one." Belle pointed out.

"It's okay, it's on airplay mode. So do you feel like watching a movie?"

"Sure." I got up from my seat and pulled my bag down from the over head locker. I searched through the bag till I found what I needed and sat back down.

"You own an iPad?" Belle asked.

"Why yes, yes I do." I replied proudly.

"You Apple product whore."

"So you don't like Apple products?"

"Of course I like them, that's a dumb question. Pass." She grabbed my iPad off me and began to explore.

"What are you doing?"

"Putting a pass code on it." She giggled.

"Oh no you don't!" I made a grab for it but she moved away just in time for me to miss. Instead, I landed on top of her pinning her to the chair, my face just inches from hers. I immediately pulled back. Belle just giggled and handed my iPad back, while I pretended that being so close to her that I could had kissed her if I wanted hadn't left me a little flustered.

"Okay, what are we watching?" I asked.

"Don't know yet." Belle pushed the arm chair between us up so she could move closer to me and balance the iPad on our knees. She scrolled through my movies for a second before stopping.

"Oh! Can we watch Daybreakers? I love that movie!"

"Sure. What are we going to do about sound?"

"I got it." She bent down and reached in to het carry on and pulled out on of those adaptors that let you plug in two sets of earbuds. "Here we are." After settling down, we started watching.

A few times during the movie, Belle would casually move up closer to me or lay her head down on my shoulder as a way to rest. Every time she did this, I had to ignore my quickening heart rate and concentrate on the movie. About three quarters of the way through, I noticed that Belle had fallen asleep on my shoulder. Oh god, I thought. I was already trying to keep my attention off her and now she was asleep on me. Oh well. I gently pulled the earbuds out of her ears, shoved them in to the seat pockets, grabbed a blanket and through it over her, all while trying not to move my left arm. Belle didn't react apart from trying to snuggle in to me more. That's it, I thought. I give in. I moved my arm up so she was able to lean into me to be more comfortable and, just as I thought she would, she lent her head against my chest and wrapped her arm around my torso. She felt so warm and I could practically feel her soft, wavy hair brushing up against my chest through my t-shirt.

At this moment, I shouldn't be letting a girl get this close to me. I should have been thinking about my girlfriend that I wasn't going to see for a week. But I wasn't. All I could think about was how I wanted more of this, how I wanted more of Belle. I didn't want to admit it to myself before, but the more time I spent with her, the clearer it became. I was falling for Belle, and I was falling dam hard.


	28. Chapter 28

Belle's POV

I awoke unsure of my location at first. I vaguely remembered falling asleep on the plane, but who was I asleep on? I looked up to see Shaun just waking up. Oh shit, I must have fallen asleep on him last night. I can't imagine Sam would be too happy about this, so I quickly sat up and moved as far away from him as my tiny seat would allow.

"Sorry about that." I said.

"Oh, don't worry about it." He said, waking himself up.

"Okay. I just don't want to step on Sam's toes or anything. I know she already doesn't like me."

"Oh please do not mention Sam." Shaun moaned.

"Why not? Are you guys still having problems?"

"A little."

"Want someone to talk to?" He hesitated a moment. He looked as if he really wanted to tell me what was wrong, but for some reason couldn't.

"Is it the jealously thing?" I asked.

"Kind of. I mean, I know the only reason she's so protective of me is because she loves me, but…"

"You should feel suffocated?"

"Yeah."

"You need to talk to her about this, you know. I wouldn't hold it against her, but I would still tell her how you were feeling."

"Why wouldn't you hold it against her?"

"I'm guessing that she doesn't want to irritate you, but I could just be her way of feeling better about your relationship when it comes to all those over obsessed fans that want to get into your pants, even if they don't know what to do once they get there."

Shaun laughed slightly at my last statement despite the sad look on his face. "They are all teenies."

"I know. I'm a fan too, remember? Just talk to her okay?"

"Okay." Shaun nodded.

"There's more, isn't there?"

"No."

"Yes there is. I can see it on your face."

"It's nothing." He said, looking away from me.

"Did she cheat?"

"No."

"Did you cheat?"

"No."

"Okay, but whatever it is, not leave it alone too long. If you don't act now, you could miss your chance."

"I'll deal with it when I am back in Sydney, okay? Right now, I want to focus on this." He stopped and looked over at me with a cheeky grin. "So am I comfortable?"

"Oh shut it." I said, hitting him in the arm. "How long until we land?"

"About an hour or so, I think."

"Shit, it's just starting to get dark outside." I said, leaning towards the window.

"Yeah, I think it's like nine at night or something."

I nodded, pulled out my iPod and started flicking through my songs. If we didn't land for another hour, I was going to kill some time with Kills. I found the album Perfectionist by Natalia Kills and hit play on the intro track.

_Subject seems obsessively concerned with power  
>Having control, suffering from neurotic impulses<br>Experiencing feelings of extreme satisfaction and disappointment within moments  
>Possible fantasist, extremely vol (opinionated) volatile<br>self sentimental, suffering from damage, denial  
>Suffering from over disciplined and a lack of remorse (control)<br>But not to worry, just take two of these with perfection  
>And everything will be fine<em>

Just as the intro cut out and the next song started to play, Shaun reached over and pulled out one of my ear buds.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I snapped.

"Listening to some music." He smiled back at me.

"Dick." I muttered.

As the songs started, I watched Shaun's face carefully to try and tell how he felt about my music taste. I can't imagine he was the kind of person to listen to this kind of music, least of all this song. The song playing was Free and was definitely a one of the lighter songs on the album.

_Get'cha 5's, get'cha 10's, get'cha 20's out  
>Get'cha 5's, get'cha 10's, get'cha 50's out<em>

Shaun listened carefully to the lyrics and turned to me. "I've heard this before."

"We covered it about a month ago. You may have heard it there, if you really watched every single cover of ours like you say you did."

"Perhaps I did." He lay back in his seat and closed his eyes. "Yes, I had definitely heard this before. And I think I like it."

"I didn't think you'd be a Kills fan, but I'll still give you the album if you wish." We spent the last hour on the plane listening to Natalia Kills, Neon Hitch, Emii, Dev and Colette Carr. Well, I listened while Shaun insisted on giving his opinion on every single song.

"Must you comment on everything?" I asked.

"Yes I must." He laughed pulling me into a hug. I just laughed. I guess how we interacted could be seen as inappropriate, but this was how I acted around all of my friends and Shaun didn't seem too fazed with it, so I just continued. Besides, in the brief time that I'd known him, I had never really thought of Shaun in that way, and even if I had, I highly doubted that we would work.


	29. Chapter 29

Shaun's POV

I sat on the bench, holding a cup of coffee in my hands. I gripped it tighter, feeling my hands thaw from the inside out. I was in the kitchen area of the apartment in which we were staying while we were in London, but I was completely alone. We had arrived in London late at night, but because of the time difference everybody had been wide awake. Apart from me, though. I had found an empty room to lock myself in so I could have some privacy. There was something I had needed to do, and it had to be done soon. I had heard everybody quieten down and head to bed about six am, right before the sun came up.

I glanced at the clock; four o'clock. Surely someone else would be awake by now? I slid down off the bench and looked around. This place wasn't too different from our place back in Sydney; big lounge, lots of rooms so everyone could have some privacy, but still very empty with no one around. Then, right on cue, I heard a click open about half way down the hall. I took my seat back on the kitchen bench and hoped that whoever had gotten up would grill me about where I had disappeared to last night.

"Good morning!" Belle said as she entered the kitchen. She stopped and looked around for a second, before turning to me. "Where are the glasses?"

"Top cupboard on the right."

"Thank you." She replied, pouring herself a glass of water.

"I don't think I've ever seen you drink anything water. Do you drink anything else?"

"No, not really." She turned around and sat up on the bench opposite me. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I said defensively.

"You look sad."She said.

I sighed. It was probably true, and the only reason I did what I did last night was for her, so I should be able to tell her about it, right? "I broke up with Sam last night."

"Wow, I'm so sorry. Was it because of what we talked about yesterday?"

"Kind of. That and I realised that I'm not it love with her anymore." And I'm in love with you, I silently added.

"Well that's a shame. You two were cute. I assume that's where you disappeared to last night?" I nodded.

"Aw, you look really upset! Come here." Belle hopped off the bench and pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and thought to myself how I was really upset, but probably not for the reasons she thought I was. I really wanted to tell her how I felt about her, but I had only just broken up with Sam; what if she thought I was just using her? I guess I'd just have to wait until the time seemed right, but when would that be?

"I'm going to go take a shower, okay?" Belle said, interrupting my thoughts. I nodded and let her go. Just as I thought I was alone, I heard someone clear their throat, trying to get my attention.

"Yeah?" I said, turning around. I saw Lilly standing at the door giving me a very smug look.

"You have feelings for Belle." She stated,

"No I don't." I said, turning my back to her, hopefully covering my guilty look.

"You honestly expect me to believe that?"

"Yes." I turned back around to stare her down. "How long were you standing there?"

"I walked in about half way through that hug that you claim was nothing."

So if that was when she walked in, she knew nothing of me breaking up with Sam. "I have a girlfriend, okay Lilly? There is no way I will ever be the cheater."

"Fine. But if you were to find yourself having feelings towards someone similar to Belle, may I give you some advice?"

"Sure."

"You would need to make sure that you treated her exactly how she needed to me treated, and that's like a fucking queen, okay? And if you dare hurt her, I promise you that I will ruin you."

"I would never hurt her." I hesitated a moment. "Please don't tell anybody. I don't want anyone to know yet."

"Of course I won't tell, as long as you don't mention him to anyone."

"Who's 'him'?"

Lilly pointed just to her left at the door. I turned and saw some guy, half dressed, carrying his shoes, attempting to leave without being noticed. When he realised he had been spotted, he froze like a deer in headlights, but Lilly just gave him a wave. "See you around." She called. The guy just nodded and disappeared out the door.

"Really? We haven't even been in London twenty-four hours and you've already slept with someone?"

"He's a friend of a friend. I was bored so I text him and asked if he was busy."

"Wow. Belle was right, you do get around."

Lilly just shrugged. "At least I can admit it; unlike Andy."

"He has his reasons for acting why he does."

"Oh?" Lilly said, suddenly very interested in what I had to say.

"But it isn't my place to say."

"Boring." Lilly muttered, turning to head back to her room. "Oh and just so you know, two production assistants are going to be here in about three hours. You may want to make yourself presentable by then."

"Why aren't I presentable?" I asked, looking down at myself. I was wearing clean clothes and everything, what was wrong?

Lilly circled around and looked me dead in the eye. "I meant emotionally. You're a fucking wreck, and if you don't want Belle to know anything, you should take care of that."

A couple of hours later, I was ready to go. I had taken a shower, cleaned myself up a bit and was feeling much better about Belle. I mean, who says that as soon I told her how I feel, she was going to reject me? Everybody was up and ready to get going at this point, we were just waiting on the production assistants. They were late and to say it was stressing Belle out would be a huge understatement.

"Where are they? They are fucking late! This is extremely unprofessional of them!"

"Relax, they're only five minutes late." Ellie told Belle.

"If it were me, I would have been here early."

"Not everyone is as anal as you." Lilly said, earning herself a glare from Belle. Then there was a knock at the door.

"They're here!" Belle screamed, sprinting for the door.

"Bitch can run in heels!" Ellie called after her.

As soon as Belle reached at door she yanked it open, looking ready to have a go at whoever was behind it.

"We are so so sorry!" Someone said from behind a large box. "We were picking this stuff up and got stuck in traffic."

"That's okay." Belle replied, obviously not expecting an apology.

"I'm Cass, by the way." The girl introduced herself by giving us all a wave. "And this is Lee." She pointed towards the door.

"I'm coming!" We heard someone crash through the door. "These clothes are fucking heavy." The room fell silently as we pondered what could possibly be in the boxes, but Lee ended that. "So howdy. This box, if you were wondering, is the clothes you had sent over from Australia and that box is make up and the prop knife."

"Yus!" Belle grabbed the box and tore it open, pulling out all the clothes I had seen her pack away a couple of days ago. "Lilly and Ellie, can you guys hang these up on the rack in my room and I'll unpack this box." She reached for the next box and picked it up. "I'll go set this stuff up."

Belle returned an hour or so later, dressed in black skinny jeans, black knee boots and a fuchsia__pink strapless top that was quite low cut.

"Well?" She asked.

"Gaga back stage in the press room at the 2009 Brit Awards, but with the bottom of the dress cut off." Lilly replied.

"Well yes, but I was going for mysterious person who turns out to be a badass serial killer."

"That too." Ellie added.

"Well," Belle said. "Let's be off! We have a music video to film!"


	30. Chapter 30

Belle's POV

I sat the desk in my room, slowly curling my hair to match how I had styled it last night. I was alone so it was unusually quiet, but I was thankful for this. The last twenty-four had been so hectic that I needed a break.

Filming last night had gone really well. I had managed to pay off the owner of a small tavern in a deserted side street to do the filming in. We had started with normal performance shots, and then we moved on to acoustic shots where Shaun would chase me out at the end. These had taken most of our time as I wanted to make sure they were perfect. I mean, these were the shots where the video started, so if they were fucked, the whole video would be fucked. When we had arrived back at about four thirty-ish everyone instantly crashed, apart though, who had decided on a celebratory drink. She was still passed out on the couch.

I picked up my mascara and carefully applied it, finishing my look. I had mimicked my make up from last night; the same thick eyeliner, the same black glitter. I stood up and inspected myself in the mirror. When I was happy with myself, I packed away my make up kit. Then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I called. The door opened a little and Shaun popped his head in the door.

"Am I interrupting?"

"Not at all. In you come." I waved him over and I started to open one of the boxes next to me.

"What's in here?" He asked.

"The prosthetics that make your throat look cut open." I told him, pulling out a set. "What you do is you put them flat against your neck. When your neck is straight they're closed, but when you tilt your head back, they pop open. Through here," I pointed to the slit. "is where you put the stage blood."

"Wow." Shaun said, taking a set from me. "That is pretty cool."

"You're going to have to wear some tomorrow night. And lay on the ground for hours looking dead. Also don't forget you need to wear the same clothes tonight as you did last night."

"Oh the perks of being the front man."

"Perks? I'd say disadvantages. Speaking of being dead, here's what I had to slit your throat with." I reached down to the bottom of the box and pulled out the metal prop dagger that was being used for the video. It had a long curve blade with patterns carved into the handle. It looked like something out of a medieval fantasy book.

"Shit." He muttered, taking it from me. "Is this thing sharp?"

"Nope, it's completely blunt. Wouldn't want someone to hurt themselves."

"True." Shaun looked up at me and half smiled. Poor guy, he still looked to sad; breaking up with Sam must have really gotten to him. All I wanted to do was hug him and tell him everything was going to be okay, but realistically, I'd only known him a week and a half. I don't think that was long enough to be commenting on his love life.

"Belle?" He asked, interrupting my thoughts. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"It's kind of hard to bring up. The thing is, I-"

He stopped abruptly at someone knocking at the door.

"Sorry." Ellie said, poking her head through the door. "Just letting you know that the girls are here."

"Thank you Ellie." I said, turning back to Shaun after she had gone. "What were you saying?"

"You know what? It can wait until after filming tonight."

"Promise?" I teased.

"I promise."

"Good. Now help me with this." I grabbed the clothing rack and wheeled it out of my room and down the hall.

I entered to lounge and saw four girls sitting with Ellie and Lilly on the couch.

"Hello!" I greeted them. "I'm Belle. And you guys are?"

"I'm Lauren." The girl sitting on the end with light brown hair started.

"I'm Cody." Said the next girl. She had short blonde hair and quite cool blue eyes.

"I'm Kione." This girl had brown hair with two blur streaks framing her face.

"And I'm Beth." She had long brown hair with matching brown eyes.

Fantastic, I thought to myself. They all looked exactly the way I had pictured, so they would suit their outfits perfectly. I explained to them that I would walk them through their outfits, they would get dressed and then they'd get their make up done last. They all seemed okay with that so I started off with Lauren.

Within an hour Cody and Beth were dressed and in the make up chairs while everyone else was sorted. Lee and Cass had arrived about twenty minutes ago and were hanging on the couch talking to the boys.

"How are we doing?" Ellie asked me, hovering over my shoulder with her camera.

"What are you doing exactly?"

"Taking photos and filming. This is a very exciting trip, you know. It should be carefully documented and posted on Facebook."

"Oh how the age of privacy has escaped us." Lilly added.

"That's rich." I muttered. "Done!" I told Cody.

"Awesome." She said, pulling out the earbud she was listening to. "Where's the bathroom. I want to take a look."

"Second door on the right." She disappeared around the corner as everyone else follow to get a look at their transformation.

"We are gods!" Lilly declared. "Look at what we have created!"

"Yes, yes Lilly you're a god. Now let me touch up my make up and we'll go."

"Where are we filming tonight?" Bradie asked.

"This secluded alley way by the tavern we filmed at last night. The crew should already be there so we need to hurry."

"I'm hurrying!" I said. "Okay." I put down my lipstick and grabbed my bag. "I'm ready. Let's get the girls and leave."

We managed to get out the door and we noisily made our way down to the lobby.

"Hey." Shaun whispered in my ear.

"Oh hey." I replied.

"Don't forget about tonight, okay?" He smiled.

I turned and smiled back up at him. "I'd never forget."


	31. Chapter 31

Shaun's POV

I leant quietly against wall towards the back of the set, watching as Belle said goodbye to the girls. We had been filming the scenes where I would chase Belle into the street and see all these dead bodies in an alleyway by the tavern. The girls were only going to be in the part of the video that we had filmed tonight, so this would be the only time we saw them. She waved at them before turning to jog over to me.

"Hey you." She said when she reached me. "Are you ready to talk?"

"Sure." I replied. "What do they think we're doing?" I said, pointing to Lilly, Ellie, Andy and Bradie.

"I just told them we were going for a walk. Wanna go somewhere?"

"Sure." I turned and led for away from the set. "I know just where to go." I grabbed her hand and pulled her down an alleyway. As we wondered through the streets, I watched as Belle marvelled at what was going on around her. I'd forgotten that she'd never been to London before. She must have noticed me watching her, because she turned to me a second later, smiling.

"What?"

"Nothing. You just looked so amazed."

"Well this is an amazing place." We walked the streets of London for about ten minutes before arriving at our destination. There weren't many people around as it was about four thirty or so in the morning, but everything was still lit up.

"Here we are!" I announced. I watched her face as she gazed over the River Thames.

"This is so beautiful." Belle whispered. She sat down on the path and gestured for me to join her. "So what did you want to talk to me about? You've built it up now so much that I am expecting nothing less than a marriage proposal."

"Well, I won't be asking you to marry me." I laughed, sitting down on the path next to her. "But it is important."

"Okay, shoot."

I looked at the smile on her face. She was so happy right now; I didn't want to crush her with what I had to say.

"I know you have an eating disorder."

Her face instantly dropped. "What? What makes you think that?"

"I hardly ever see you eat, and when I do, you're barely eating anything."

"Maybe I don't have a very big appetite."

"If that were true, why do you disappear to the bathroom after every meal?"

"This is such shit." Belle stood up to walk away, but I wasn't going to let her.

"Belle, don't leave!" I grabbed her hand, but she spun around, ripping her hand from my grip.

"If I had an eating disorder, why would I be this fat? Why don't I look like one of those perfect girls that never have to worry about their weight? Well you know what? Maybe I do little as little as I possibility can! Maybe I do look at myself in the mirror every morning and think about how much I hate my body!" Belle yelled at me, nearly in tears. "But what the fuck does it matter to you? I'm just some girl who was hired to direct a video for you! A week from now, I'll be gone."

"You mean more than that to me." I told her, making another grab for her hand. She just stepped further back so she was out of reach.

"I don't know why you even care. I mean, none of my friends have noticed and they live with me. I've known you a week and all of the sudden someone gives a shit."

"I care because I'm in love with you." I blurted out. Shit, that wasn't meant to come out tonight.

"Y-you, you what?"

I took a deep breath, trying to stop myself from going further. "I said, I'm in love with you. I know it sounds crazy-"

"You're right, you do sound crazy. You have known me a week and a half at the most! How do you fall in love with someone in a week and a half!" That wasn't how hoped she'd take it.

"When you know, you know." I offered as my excuse.

"Wait, you only broke up with Sam two days ago?"

"Yes. I broke up with her so I could be with you."

A look of confusion spread across her face."What? Why the fuck did you do that? Why would you break her heart just to be with me?"

"Because I believe that you'd be worth it. If you'd take me that is."

"If you're asking me if I am also stupidly in love with you, no I am not."

"I don't expect you to be. I just want to know if you could ever be with me." I said, taking another step closer to her. This time she didn't back away.

Belle was quite for a second, thinking over what I had just said. "This is bullshit." She muttered before turning and walking away.

"No, Belle wait!" I called out after her.

"Don't follow me!" She yelled over her shoulder as she disappeared into the night.


	32. Chapter 32

Belle's POV

I ran into the darkness, desperately trying to find a place to hide. I turned a corner and pressed my back against the wall, hoping like hell that if Shaun had followed me, he wouldn't see me hiding. Sure enough, a few seconds later I saw him come running down the street, calling out my name and begging for me to come back. I pushed myself harder against the wall, silently begging him to leave me alone. He must have decided that I couldn't be around here, as he made his way further down the road, still calling my name. I sighed with relief and slid down the wall, settling on the ground.

"What the hell is going on?" I muttered to myself. I mean, I think my reaction to what he had told me was completely justified. What did he think, that he could tell me all that and just expect me to fall into his arms? I stood up and started to head back in the direction of the hotel. Shaun had headed in the opposite direction so I didn't think there would be any chance of me bumping into him. I made my way up the stairs. Once I was there and slowly opened the door, peering inside to see if anyone was still up. When I was sure that everyone had gone to bed, I entered the room and headed for bed, silently grateful that there was no one around. There was no way I wanted to answer any questions tonight. I opened my door and nearly slammed in shut again as I saw Shaun perched on the end of my bed. How the hell did he get there so fast?

"Belle I-" Shaun started.

"Don't." I interrupted. "Please not now. Can we talk about it after I've had a chance to think?"

He nodded and started to head out the door, but paused just as he was about to close the door. "Goodnight." He said quietly.

"Night." I replied just as he closed the door.

I changed out of my video outfit and crawled into bed. I wasn't going to think about this tonight, I was going to wait until I could talk to Ellie and Lilly about it. They'd help, I guess.

I woke up the next morning after a dreamless sleep, rolled out of bed and picked some clothes up off the floor to put on. As I was about to put on my shirt, I stopped and looked myself up and down in the mirror. How on earth could Shaun think I had an eating disorder? All those were absolute sticks and I was far from that. I had a huge stomach and even bigger boobs that I was constantly made fun of for. How exactly did Shaun look at me and get eating disorder? I mean, what he had said about the eating was true, but it's not like eating huge portions was healthy. I had just trained my stomach to be fuller with less food. And as for the forcing myself to throw up, how did he even know about that? I'm pretty sure he had never been around while I was doing that! And all I was doing was getting all the fatty, toxic foods out of my body. Perfectly fine.

Or was I? I sat back down on my bed, not breaking my own gaze in the mirror. I mean, Shaun wasn't the first person to think I may have an eating disorder. There had been this girl that boarded with me in year nine who asked me once if I ate properly. That had been back when I was fourteen, back when I had just started forcing myself to throw up, before I had learn when not one was in the bathroom and how to clean up properly. I'd denied in and she ended up leaving to go to a different school a month or two later. I hadn't spoken to her since.

I pushed the thought out of my mind and finished getting dressed. I opened my door and looked down the hall. All the other doors apart from mine and the one next to me were open, so I must have been the last person to get up. I looked at the unopened door next to me. Who sleep in here, I asked myself as I tried the door handle. Locked. I shrugged and made my way to the kitchen.

As I entered the room, the conversation stopped abruptly. Just as I had guessed, everyone apart from me was awake and they had obviously been talking about me.

"So! What was everyone talking about?" I asked cheerfully. "The royal wedding? Because that is coming up in a week or so. I don't really care, but if Kate's dress is Alexander McQueen, I win ten bucks." I took a seat next to Bradie as everyone studied me, trying to figure out if I was taking the piss or if I genuinely thought they may have been talking about the royal wedding. Apart from Shaun that is, he just avoided my gaze.

"Hey Lilly, Ellie do you think we could continue this conversation about the royal wedding in private? You know, privately?"

"Are we going to need pens and paper? Lilly asked.

"I think we may." Lilly grabbed three pens off the bench and we headed down the hall to her room.

"So what happened last night?" Lilly asked while she dug out a large piece of paper and handed out the pens. Blue for Ellie, red for Lilly and black for me, same as always.

"Don't you already know? Wasn't that what you were talking about when I came in?"

"Nope." Ellie said. "We were trying to squeeze the information out of him, but he wasn't budging."

I told them how Shaun had confessed his love for me in the most cliqued way possible, told me how he had broken up with his girlfriend to be with me and how I'd basically told him to fuck off. I made sure to leave off the part about my eating habits.

"Oh." Lilly said once I'd finished. "So that's why we need the pen and paper." The pen and paper was our way of saying we were going to make a pros and cons list. Everyone had a different coloured pen so that when we were finished, whoever it was being made for could know which points were theirs and which they agreed with so they would only take into account what matter to them when making their decision. Lilly scribbled PROS and CONS across the top of the paper.

"So you want to know if you should be with Shaun?" Ellie asked. I nodded.

"First, what stopped you from immediately saying yes?"

"The fact that he'd only just broken up with his girlfriend and the fact that he's already so madly 'in love' with me, when really he barely knows me."

"Okay." Lilly said as she wrote down my points. I leaned across the bed and underlined them with my black pen.

"And what is making you still consider being with him?" Ellie asked.

"I think I may have feelings for him. I mean, I know I'm not in love with him; love takes time." Ellie wrote as I spoke and when she was finished, I underlined the sentence.

"Pro! He's a musician." Lilly said.

"How is that a pro?" Ellie asked.

"Because musicians are hot!" Lilly replied. I agreed, underlining her point.

"Con, he's a musician." Ellie said.

"How can it be both?" I asked.

"Crazy fans." Ellie stated. "I know not all fan can be crazy, but I can imagine that some teenies out there wouldn't like you dating the lead singer of their favourite band and they'd take their anger out on you." She had a point so I underlined it.

"Con, he lives in a different country." I wrote.

"Con, he's hairy and he uses fake tan." Lilly wrote.

"Okay, that is the most superficial thing you've ever put on this list! And you don't even know if it's true!"

"But it's weird!" Lilly moaned.

"I don't care, it's not getting underlined." I said.

"Pro, he loves you and that has to mean something." Ellie reasoned.

"True, but the relevant cons far outweigh the pros." I said, emphasizing the word relevant while looking at Lilly.

"So what are you going to do?" Ellie asked as I picked up the paper, scanning over the points.

"I think that despite whatever feeling either of us have, if we get together, we'll just end up getting hurt in the long run. I mean, we'd be living so far apart and how do I know that Shaun isn't just on the rebound from Sam?"

Both Lilly and Ellie nodded as I folded up our list. "Now I just have to tell him."


	33. Chapter 33

Shaun's POV

I sat quietly at the breakfast bar, watching everyone chatter about the video. We had only finished filming about an hour ago and we were now seated around the room reflecting on how the filming had gone. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves apart from Belle, who stayed quiet in the corner. That's how she had been the whole night, quiet. I had tried a few times to talk to her through filming, but every time I lost my nerve. I mean, tonight's filming had half been her pretending the slice my throat open and half me pretending to be dead. That meant that for half the night I had Belle's arms wrapped around my neck, knife in hand. Though that may sound like a horrible position to be in for so long, but if I closed my eyes for a moment, I was able to pretend that Belle was there because she wanted to be, that she was there because we felt the same way about me.

But I knew she didn't. I knew that the next time we spoke she was going to tell me that she didn't feel that same way. Even if she hadn't intended to, she had made her feelings obvious during the shoot. She had stayed away from me whenever she could, and the times when she was forced to be near me, she had acted extremely awkward towards me. All I wanted to do was kiss her and tell her that whatever was going through her head was wrong, that we would be perfect together.

"So when do we go back?" Bradie asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"On the 28th. The day before the royal wedding." Belle replied, breaking her silence.

"So we have a week so spend shopping and sight-seeing!" Lilly said, clapping her hands together in excitement.

"I might head off to bed now." Ellie said, standing up. "I want to match my body clock up with London time so we can go sight-seeing during the day."

I glanced at the clock on the wall, she was right. It was quarter to five in the morning. Everyone else agreed and started to head off in the various directions that led to their rooms. Everyone apart from Belle.

She remained in the same spot, not looking up from her hands. I assumed she would still not want to talk to me so I stood up, intending go to bed.

"Wait." I heard a small voice tell me from the couch. I turned around and it was Belle. She was now standing her arms folded across her chest. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." I replied, not really sure if I wanted to hear what she had to say.

"Privately?" She added, nodding towards her bedroom.

I agreed and followed her into her room. She let me in first and turned around with her back to me, pushing the door closed. "Shaun-" She started with her back still turned to me. I knew where this was headed, but I wasn't going down without a fight. I spun her around and pulled her into me, leaning down to kiss her. I pulled away a few seconds later when I realised that she hadn't even reacted. I searched her face for the emotion I was looking for, but all I saw was confusion. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." I apologised. "It's just- I- I don't know! I could tell that you were going to reject me and I didn't want to let you go without at least kiss you first. And-"

"Shaun shut up." She stopped me. I fell silent. I watched her eyes as her minded processed what had just happened.

"Look, I'll just go." I said, reaching for the door.

"Don't." She said, stopping me by placing a hand on my chest. She bit down on her lip like she was still thinking, then leant up and kissed me. I instantly pulled her closer and let me fingers tangle themselves in her hair as she wrapped her arms around my neck. When she pulled away, I rested my forehead on hers, smiling from ear to ear.

"What made you change your mind?" I asked.

"The only reason I was going to say I didn't want to be with you was because of all these factors that, if we both tried hard enough, we could easily work through. I wasn't going to say no because I didn't feel the same way."

"So you love me too?" I asked hopefully.

"Maybe not love. Not yet." She replied. "But I definitely do care about you."

"So you'll be my girlfriend?"

"If you try that again but more romantically, maybe." She said, giggling.

"Fine." I said. I took a step back, got down on one knee and took her hand in mine. "Will you, Isabella-"

"Isabelle." She corrected, still giggling.

"Will you, Isabelle Takoiti-"

"Tekoiti." She corrected again, giggling a little more.

"Fucking hell, what is your name?"

"Isabelle Rose Tekoiti."

"Okay. Will you, Isabelle Rose Tekoiti, be my girlfriend?"

"Really? You aren't going to cheese it up with your own full name too?" Belle replied sarcastically, still smiling.

"Fine, then I will. Will you-"

"No stop!" She said as she got down on her knees in front of me. "Of course I will be your girlfriend."

I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her again. "I should let you sleep." I said, pulling us both up off the floor. "Unless…" I started.

"What?" Belle asked.

"Can I sleep in here tonight?"

"Um Shaun, I don't think I'm ready for-"

"No! Not that!" I quickly corrected her. "I actually just meant sleeping."

"Oh. Well then you can I guess. Just give me a second to get changed." She pulled some clothes out of her suitcase and motioned for me to turn around as she walked into the ensuite. As she closed the door, I stripped down to my underwear, crawled into her bed. As I sat there waiting her Belle to reappear, I looked through the things she had placed on her bedside table. Two pairs of sunglasses, a watch that didn't appear to work but was covered in crystals, a bottle of black nail polish…

"I thought you said no sex." My thoughts were interrupted as Belle re-emerged from the bathroom dressed in her pyjamas, carrying a bundle of clothes.

"And I meant it."

"Well why are you naked?" She asked, dumping the clothes down on her suitcase.

"I'm not! See, I'm wearing underwear under the doona." I said, pulling it back.

"Duvet." She said, slipping into bed next to me.

"What?"

"It's duvet, not doona."

"I'm pretty sure it's doona." The best way I can describe the look she gave we is 'bitch please'.

"No, it's duvet. Just like it is chilly bin and jandal."

"What the hell is a jandal?" I asked, confused.

"Don't worry." She sighed as she lay down. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I replied, slipping my arms around her, falling asleep with her head chucked under my chin.


	34. Chapter 34

Belle's POV

I awoke five hours later to find myself alone in my bed.

"Shaun?" I mumbled, still half asleep.

"Shhh babe, go back to sleep," he whispered before kissing me on the forehead. "I'll be right back." I watched him quickly pull on his jeans and t-shirt before disappearing out the door.

I didn't bother to try and go back to sleep, I just lay back and watched the sky out the window. The London sky was overcast, but the skyline still looked beautiful. I smiled to myself and thought about how much fun it was going to be to explore London. My mum had been so excited when I told her I would be coming here. When she was sixteen, my mum had dropped out of high school and taken a job as a nanny in London and she had loved the city ever since. My goal had been to one day bring her back here so we could explore together. I sighed to myself, thinking about my family. I hadn't seen them since about January and I missed them so much. The next time I would see them was July and I didn't want to wait that long. I pulled my knees up against my chest as I thought about my family. I missed how my brother and I shared shoes; I missed my mum's cooking. Hell, I even missed Bill a little bit.

My thoughts were interrupted by Shaun re-entering the room, carrying a tray that was covered over. "Breakfast time! Or lunch really," he announced.

"Not really that hungry, but thank you anyway." I smiled back at him.

"Okay no. You are having something to eat," he said as he set the tray down on the bedside table. "We need to talk about this." He sat himself down on the bed.

"No we don't," I said, rolling over. "It's not like you even have any experience with this kind of thing anyway."

"I have more than you'd think."

I sat up and looked at him. He's grabbed my attention with that one. "Continue."

"Look I can't tell you every detail because it isn't something I should be spreading around, okay?" I nodded and he continued.

"When I was about seventeen, there was this girl who started to hang out with us; I think she was new. Anyway, she became really good mates with everyone and everything was fine. But then one night we all went out to a mate's house party. I wasn't drinking because I was meant to be sober driver. From what I could tell, she wasn't drinking too much either. At one point during the night, I saw her go upstairs but when she didn't come back, I went to go look for her. I found her in the bathroom on her knees in front of the toilet forcing herself to throw up. At first I thought maybe she was just trying to get any alcohol out of her system but as soon as she saw me she begged me not to tell anyone. When I asked what I was looking at, she confessed everything. She had been anorexic but she had recently started forcing herself to throw up when people started to notice that she wasn't eating."

I sat back and took in what I'd just heard; maybe that's how he'd known?

"After that, I promised that I wouldn't tell anyone, but I wasn't going to let her go on like that. So I helped her. I learned all her tricks and made sure she ate healthy."

I nodded slowly. "So that's how you knew?" I asked quietly.

He nodded. "I'm going to help you too, you know. There is no way you're going on like this."

"I'm fine." I muttered.

"You know that's not true. Can I ask why?" He asked, trying to look me in the eye. I just avoided his gaze.

"Lots of reasons."

"Is it to do with those girls that were on Skype?"

"Sort of. They weren't the cause but they aren't helping. Look, can we not talk about it? Please?" I begged.

"Fine." He said. "But we will talk about it, okay?"

"Must we?"

"If you want to get better, yes. Now," he said, reaching over for the tray. "How about breakfast in bed?"

"You're so cheesy." I giggled.

"And you're going to have to get used to it," he said, reaching for cutlery. We leaned back and balanced the food on our laps while looking out over London.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"I love you," he replied. "How could I not help?"

We ate silently for a few minutes. I got full quite fast, as I had thought I would. Not eating shrinks your stomach and it takes a bit of eating before you can eat a full meal again. And then there is that horrible feeling of being full after being empty for so long.

Maybe that's why I did it. I was used to being empty in so many other aspects of my life, why not add to the list?

"Hey Belle," Shaun said, pulling me out of my thoughts again.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"So what's a jandal?"


	35. Chapter 35

Lilly's POV

"So where is she?" Natty asked through my screen.

Despite our plan to catch up on sleep so we could go sightseeing, I was the only person in the room. Bradie and Ellie had disappeared about an hour ago to go have a look around and Ellie had her camera with her so I didn't think they'd be back for a while. Poor Bradie, he'd have to listen to Ellie go on and on about photography and from what I knew, she was taking to the wrong band member. Oh well, he did seem into her.

When I went past Andy's room he was still dead to the world and I hadn't seen Belle or Shaun yet, so that just left me. I decided that since I hadn't had time to call her before we left for London, it would be a good time to see if Natty was up and ready to Skype. She hadn't been, but she soon woke up enough to talk.

"Well when we all went to bed last night, she stayed behind to talk to Shaun. Haven't seen her since."

"Shit," Natty replied. "Was she planning to get with him?"

"Nah, she was planning to tell him she wasn't interested," I said thoughtfully. "I bet they fucked."

"Yeah, well Belle is a big fat mental slut. She's like an artist without a canvas."

"Good metaphor," I commented.

"You mean simile," she corrected. "What? I'm studying English."

"Dick," I muttered. "Wait, shhhh." I muted my laptop.

"I'm just going to take a shower, okay? Then we should go out exploring, just us," I heard someone whisper from down the hall.

"I'd really like that," another person replied.

"Well I know who that must be," Natty messaged me. I moved my way up to the breakfast bar and sat on the middle stool, my laptop sitting next to me so that Natty could grill Belle as I did.

"I'm un-muting you," I said as I turned the volume back up and swivelled my screen around. "Whattup slut pants." I greeted Belle as soon as she entered the kitchen.

"What?" she gasped.

"You know what we mean, you slut," Natty replied.

"Okay, can you please explain this to me?"

"We're referring to the person you spent the night with," I explained.

"Oh shit," she muttered, leaning against the fridge. "You think I slept with him."

"That we do. And we think that because you did," Natty said.

"Okay first of all, no I did not sleep with him. And two, Lilly's the slut, not me."

"One, yes you did and two, that's true but I have a canvas."

"What the fuck are you on about?" Belle replied.

"You know exactly what we're on about!" Natty yelled through my computer.

Belle opened her mouth to protest, but stopped in defeat. "Fuck you both. I'm going to take a shower."

"Hey come back! We aren't done interrogating you!" I called down the hall. "Wait, isn't Shaun taking a shower? Are you off for some shower sex? Like morning after shower sex? Don't slip! Nothing kills the mood like a concussion! I would know!"

"I have an ensuite bitch!" Belle yelled back.

"I think she's gone, Lilly. You can stop," Natty said, "But in all honesty, I don't think they slept together."

"Yeah me neither, but it's fun to give her shit. Besides, I think she'd want to wait after what happened with Andy."

"True. Has she talked about it much more?"

I shook my head. "It's all been about the video and Shaun."

"Did I hear someone say my name before?" someone said behind me.

"Andy?" I turned around and sure enough, there was Andy standing right behind me. And he was only wearing his jeans. Fuck, I thought as I looked him up and down. I wanted to get in his pants. I know I get called a slut for wanted to do that kind of thing, but I didn't really care. I mean, how can someone not love a slut? The purpose of life was to reproduce and I just practised lots! There's no need to be hateful.

"That's me," he smiled.

"I'm still here," Natty said bluntly from behind me.

"And now you aren't," I said, closing my laptop lid and hanging up on her.

"Ohhh harsh," Andy said.

"She was in the way."

"In the way of what?"

"Of me talking to you." I smiled. "So I hear it's your birthday soon."

"That is true."

"Aren't you going to be 23? Old man," I teased.

"That is not old. How old are you?"

'"I'm 17."

"Shit really?" he said, sounding far too surprised.

"Why the surprise?"

"I don't know. You just seem more mature than 17."

"It's the sexual experience," I said.

"Oh yeah. Actually that's probably it," he said, unflinching. "Speaking of sexual experience and my birthday, I was wondering if I could take you out that night?"

"Hmmm." I pretended to think for a moment. He wanted to take me out on his birthday. Golly me, I wonder what that could mean?

"Sure," I said after keeping him hanging long enough. "Sounds fun."

"Okay. Awesome." He grinned from ear to ear as if he were a two year old who had just received a lollipop. I should get him a lollipop for his birthday.

He excused himself to go get dressed just as Shaun entered the room, going to the fridge to grab a drink. Awesome, I thought. Now I could interrogate him too!

"So does she take it in the ass?" I asked.

Shaun instantly choked on his drink and spat it all over himself. "What?"

"You heard me."

"No! I mean, I don't know! What?" he stuttered, confused.

"Just a question bro. No need to freak out."

"You are so vulgar," he muttered, grabbing a tea towel to clean up the juice he'd spat everywhere.

"I know right? It's so much fun. You get reactions like that." I gestured towards his t-shirt that was now soaked through. "And that's not even the best."

"Look, I'm not interested in that with Belle. I want to take things slowly and I don't want to mess it up with sex. We talked about it and she told me that she's never been with anyone so I intend to make her fist time special, okay?"

The last statement made me stiffen. Her first? Did that mean that she hadn't told him about Andy? Was she planning to? I realised I'd been staring into space so I tried to snap back into the conversation.

"I guess that means you two worked out."

"Yeah we did," he smiled.

I heard Belle's bedroom door close and footsteps towards the kitchen. Belle appeared dressed head to toe in Alexander McQueen. "Do I look London?" she asked, directing the question at me.

"Of course darling," I replied with my fake British accent.

"You look beautiful," Shaun said, wrapping his arm around her waist. "I'll be back in a second, I just need to go change my shirt. I kind of spilt juice all over myself." Belle giggled and shooed him off to go and change.

"How'd he do that?" Belle asked.

"I asked if you took it up the ass," I said casually.

"And what did he say?"

"He told me that I was vulgar."

"If only he knew I was worse," she sighed.

"You haven't told him about Andy," I stated.

Her face dropped as she lowered her voice. "What did you tell him?"

"I didn't tell him anything, but you need to. It'll bite you in the ass if you don't," I warned.

"Look, now just isn't good okay? I will tell him, just not yet." She stopped speaking as Shaun returned.

"Ready to go babe?"

"Of course." Shaun draped his arm around Belle's shoulder as the happy couple headed for the door. Well, I thought. Happy for now.


	36. Chapter 36

Andy's POV

"Andy. Aaandyyy." Someone whispered. I forced my eyes open, sitting up slightly to look around. My curtains were still closed and my eyes tried to adjust to the light.

"Over here."

I turned and saw Lilly perched on the end of my bed with a plate in her hands. "Happy birthday." She smiled. I sat up and took a closer look. "You made me a cake?"

"Well, I asked Belle to make you a cake, but I iced it." She admitted.

"Thank you." I replied.

"Do you want a piece?"

"Right now? In bed?"

"Of course." Lilly stood up, grabbed the knife she had set on my bedside table and sat down next to me. I don't know what made me do it, but I wrapped my arm around her waist. She didn't react apart from shuffling in closer to me.

"Can you see what you're doing?" I asked as she began to cut the cake, still in the dark.

"I can see fine thank you. Why? Is your vision failing you in your old age?"

"No, only getting better." I stopped as shoved a piece of cake into my mouth.

"Is it good?" She giggled, licking her fingers.

"Yeah it is. Belle did a good job." I teased.

"Hey!"

"And you did a good job icing."

"Thank you." She said, kissing me on the cheek. I was so surprised that I almost pulled back, but when I turned my head to face her I saw that same look I had seen so many times before. She slowly lent in closer, planning to kiss me, but I turned my head before she could. I didn't want it to happen like that. I didn't want us to mean nothing to her. Over the last few days I had realised that I actually genuinely liked Lilly and if something was ever to happen between us, I wanted it to mean as much to her as it would to be.

"So are we still on for tonight?" I asked. I knew that she probably saw tonight was what I had originally seen it as, a chance to sleep with each other, and that was confirmed by the look that lit up her face.

"Of course we are! I mean, we need to celebrate your birthday best we can." She said, drawing out the last few words.

"Okay well, what time is it?"

"One in the afternoon."

"Let me go and take a shower and I'll be ready by eight, okay?"

"Deal." She said, getting out of my bed and heading for my door. "And don't be late."

For the third time in the last hour, I pulled off my shirt, chucked it on the ground and opened my wardrobe. I flipped through the shirts I had hung; nothing. I turned back to my suitcase and pulled out a t-shirt. I put it on and looked at myself in the mirror. I sighed, thinking that this would just have to do, because it wasn't getting any better than this.

I poked my head out the door and listened around. I heard voices coming from Ellie's room, so I headed in that direction, looking for Lilly. The giggling voices stopped the moment I knocked on the door and Belle popped her head out.

"You called?"

"I am looking for Lilly."

"Well you'll have to wait." She replied.

"Why?"

"Because you're early and perfection takes time."

"But I'm only early by like five minutes!"

"Perfection takes time." Ellie repeated from inside the bathroom. She doesn't need it. She's already perfect, I mentally added.

"Come on guys! You're making it sound like I need a life time to look somewhat presentable." Lilly called from Ellie's bathroom.

"Okay, why do you all get bathrooms and we don't? Surely the band would get the bathrooms?"

"Because we are women and we have the power over you." Lilly replied, stepping out from the bathroom. Wow, I saw why she had taken the time. She was dress in a similar dress to Belle's from the video, but in a deep purple with matching heels. Her hair was tied back in a bun and she was holding a black studded purse with a tiny diamond encrusted skull on top.

"Come on, let's go." She said, dragging me towards the door while ignoring my gawking stare. "You'd think you'd never seen a girl before."

"Not one a beautiful as you." I replied truthfully.

"Laying it on a tad thick, don't you think?"

"Only if it's working."

"Idiot." She muttered, smiling.

We found the elevator and stopped while I eyed that tiny skull on Lilly's purse.

"It's Alexander McQueen."

"Huh?" I asked.

"My purse. It's Alexander McQueen. That's why it has a skull on it. It's kind of a trademark."

"You learn something new every day."

"That won't be the only new thing you learn tonight." She said, exiting the elevator.

Wow, I thought. I am absolutely fine with that. I think.

We walked the streets of London for about half an hour before Lilly pulled me towards what looked a popular club. It had a line around the block but she went right up to the front and flirted her way in. I was quickly pulled away from the echoing silence of the night in to the pounding club. I was used to the usual shitty club music that vibrated against the walls and the usual sluts that hung out in groups, trying to get with anybody who would pay them attention for more than five minutes. Within seconds Lilly returned from the bar with a drink for both of us. She shoved mine in my hand, downed hers and dragged me immediately to the dance floor.

Everything after that was a blur, up until Lilly dragged me out of our forth club and into a taxi. The cold air hit like a slap in the face and made me more aware of my surroundings. Something reeked of alcohol, but I soon realised that was us. I had my arm around Lilly, but more for support rather than any kind of affection. She had her hand tucked in the back pocket of my jeans and was using her other hand to direct me towards the taxi.

Once inside, she sat down practically on top of me and started to try and kiss me. As much as I wanted to kiss her back, I pushed her off me. I mean, she'd probably had as much to drink as I had if not more and I did want her to have some recollection of anything happening between us. When the taxi arrived at the hotel, we got out and stumbled towards the room. We both had our arms around each other, but it wasn't really clear who was supporting who. Once in the door Lilly attempted to drag me to her bedroom.

"No, no. Let's go watch some TV." I suggested, pushing her away. Maybe I was more sober than I had thought.

"Oh you want me on the couch baby?" She slurred, pushing me down in to a seated position on the couch. She was soon straddling me, pinning my shoulders back with her hands. She began to kiss me passionately, and as much as I was savouring her lips on mine, I tried my best to push her off. I grabbed her wrists, attempting her pull her off me, but Lilly was stronger than I thought and she held her ground. She detached herself from me and began to kiss her way down my neck, giving me a moment to protest.

"Lilly, we shouldn't do this."

"Why not?" She asked after I felt a sharp pain jolt through my body from my collarbone. "Don't you want me?"

"I do, but not if it's like this."

"Oh for fucks sake." She muttered. She stood up, rolled her eyes and marched off in the direction of her room. "Call me when you grow a pear." She called back before slamming her door.


	37. Chapter 37

Belle's POV

"Headache?" I asked Lilly, who was seated next to Ellie looking severely hung over.

"Na bro I'm fine," she replied, taking the coffee I offered her.

"Obviously. I wish I had brought the megaphone with me."

"Not the fucking megaphone! I hate that thing," Lilly moaned. At the hostel, I kept a megaphone under the sink in the kitchen for mornings so that I could torment her.

"Cool t-shirt, by the way," she said. I looked down at what I was wearing. It was Shaun's shirt from yesterday.

"I know right," I replied casually.

"Why are you wearing it?" Ellie asked.

"Cause it was on the floor," I said, again trying to sound casual.

"Why was it on the floor?" Lilly grilled.

"Shit," I muttered. I realised they'd caught me as wide smiles spread across both their faces.

"Aww-" Ellie started.

"No! Don't start you two! I know what you're like," I said.

"But we're just happy that you're with someone and you're happy-"

"And you're having sober sex," Lilly added, cutting Ellie off.

"Way to ruin the moment," Ellie commented.

"Hey! Actually! Why aren't we discussing what happened with you last night?" I asked.

"Because nothing happened," she replied sadly.

"Why not?" Ellie asked.

"Well, at first he seemed into it but I think I did something wrong, because he wasn't up for it," she explained.

"I don't think you would have done anything wrong. I mean, we're all seen how he looks at you. He definitely cares about you so maybe he actually cares about you enough to be more than just friends with benefits," I offered.

"No that can't be it," Lilly said, shooting down my idea.

"Cool then."

"No I think she's right," Ellie added.

"No I don't think she is."

"Speak of the devil…" Ellie said as Andy walked into the room.

"Were you talking about me?" Andy asked. "Again?"

"You always seem to enter the room-" I started, but I was distracted by the huge wound Andy was sporting on his collar bone. "Come with me," I said, dragging him towards the bathroom.

"What?" he asked once I had closed the door.

"See that?" I asked, indicating for him to look at himself in the mirror. "When Lilly bit you last night, she broke skin and it looks like it's getting an infection," I stated.

"Fuck, I didn't even know she gave me that," he muttered. "How do you know it's infected?" he asked, fingering the scabbing wound.

"My mum's a nurse. You learn these things," I explained. He sat back down on the edge of the bathtub and I sat opposite him and started to clean the wound.

"So tell me what happened."

Andy shook his head. "She was trying too hard to get into me, but I decided that I didn't really want things to happen like that. When I tried to tell her that I didn't want to sleep with her, she stormed off. I don't want her to be upset because I do care about her, I just don't want to mean nothing to her, if you get what I mean."

"I do, but I thought you were meant to be a slut as well," I joked.

"Not helping."

"Rightio then. Maybe just leave it, pretend nothing's happened and concentrate on getting to know her as a friend. Maybe you two will grow closer and then you can pounce," I suggested.

"I guess I'll try it," Andy replied unenthusiastically. "What happened with you last night?" he asked, looking me up and down.

"What didn't happen with you," I said bluntly.

He nodded. "Fair enough. Does that mean you've told him about what happened between us?"

I stopped applying the dressing and looked at him. "No," I muttered guiltily.

He nodded again. "Are you going to?"

"No," I repeated. "I don't think it would do any good."

"I wouldn't tell him either. I'm pretty sure he'd cut my head off."

"Why?" I asked.

Andy drummed his fingers along the end of the bathtub. "I may have slept with one of his friends. It kind of pissed him off."

"Care to elaborate?" I prompted out of him.

"There was a girl who hung out with us at high school who I was never really close with. When we finished school I didn't keep in touch with her but at some reunion thing we saw each other again. We ended up sleeping with each other and when Shaun saw her leaving the next morning he was really angry. He'd always been really overprotective of her and seeing that we'd slept together made him even angrier. I'm not sure why but it was really weird."

"Was she new to school when she started hanging out with you guys?" I asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" he asked.

Shit, I thought. Andy was talking about the girl with an eating disorder that Shaun had told me about. But Andy didn't seem to know that.

"Just a guess," I said, right before the door was opened.

"Guys, we figured out how open that room!" Ellie said, before running down the hall.

"Come on," I laughed, heading for my room to get changed. We I returned, everyone had entered the room. I looked inside and saw a bunch of instruments stalked up against that back wall. I drum kit was set up and Ellie was already seated at it. Lilly was busy digging out a keyboard from the back while the guys were trying to get us to perform.

"Just one song!" Bradie begged Ellie.

"Please," Shaun asked, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Okay!" Lilly piped up from the back. "But I want to sing."

"Really?" Ellie asked. Three of us could sing, but usually Natty and I shared that role. Lilly barely ever sung, unless it was for a reason.

"What song?" I asked.

"'Bootycall' by Ke$ha," she said, deciding on a keyboard. She brought it over and set it up, gesturing for me to get ready to play. Ellie and I exchanged a look. We both knew what had happened last night between Andy and Lilly and we both knew that 'Bootycall' was about meaningless sex with no strings attached. Subtle Lilly.

I set up a mic stand in front of me so I could sing backup while Lilly plugged everything in. When we were ready, I began to play and Lilly kicked in with the first lyrics.

"_I like you  
>Don't want to<br>Marry you  
>I really wanna really wanna<br>Do you  
>A favor<br>And let you know  
>That I really really really really"<em>

Ellie and I played along while Lilly vented her feelings through song. I half watched Andy out of the corner of my eye. If he was upset he wasn't showing it on his face.

By the time we had finished, Andy was looking quite hurt. I can't imagine that it was easy to hear from the girl you love that she only wanted one thing from you.

"So," Lilly said, spinning around to look Andy dead in the eye, grinning her evil grin. "What did you think?"


End file.
